I'm On The Road !!

I will be talking about my publishing journey and signing books at the


PENINSULA WRITERS SPRING FLING WRITING THING

SATURDAY MAY 5, 2012

SCHULER BOOKS AND MUSIC

2660 28th Street SE

Grand Rapids, MI 49512

The topic for this day-long conference will be publishing. Doors open at 9:00 A.M., with registration at 9:15 A.M and runs until 2pm. I will be participating in the afternoon session on Traditional Publishing that starts at 1:00.




Hope you can make it out if you are in the area.

Another Way of Looking at Something I Thought I Knew.

Today I'm visiting the blog Broken Teepee

I received a lovely review. Sometimes I am amazed and humbled at what readers tell me about my work. They are able to shed light on aspects of my novel that I hadn't really thought about about and I am grateful for the insight. Perhaps because of the orignal inspiration for the novel I didn't nessarily see the novel as a coming of into Afican American mysticism. But it very much is.

My character Grace as a coming of age heroine put me in mind of my favorite quote by Joseph Campbell where he talks about how we all can all take the hero's path to our greatness or grace.

“We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us — the labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”

Where All My Charaters Are

I recently completed a blog tour with Pump Up Your Book and I must say I learned a lot about myself as a very introverted author trying to make my way in a market that requires many extrovert skills.

Thank God for all the lessons I learned from reading the blog, Shrinking Violet Promotions: Marketing for Introverts. If you are introvert and the thought of promoting your novel gives you hives or make you want to hide under your bed, head on over to this very useful site for all the information you need to become an effective advocate for your work.

Now, one of the blog posts I had to write during the tour was an exercise called: “Five Things You Didn’t Know About ___” (fill in the blank with one of your character’s names.)

At first I dreaded writing about this I think because writing in Grace's voice after being away from her so long felt a little odd and I was fearful I couldn't do it anymore. However, once I got into it I found it very instructive and I think this exercise might also prove helpful to those of you who feel they need to flesh out the characters in their own work.

Below is what I wrote for the blog, The Plot: Where All The Characters Are:

Five things you didn’t know about, Grace Johnson from Act of Grace by Karen Simpson.

(In the first person voice of my character Grace Johnson talking directly to the audience.)

I was not named Grace just because it matches the theme in the book. My author mom, Ms. Simpson, knew I was not named lightly. Family lore has it that along with everything else my parents fiercely argued about what I was to be named. If it had been left up to my mother’s gaudy, soapoperish taste, I would have been christened Diva Rose. A name only a stripper could love or use. My father saved me. He told my mother that he had read that people’s lives proceed from their names the way rivers proceed from their sources. The name Diva Rose was like a creek, while the name Grace was like the Nile. My daddy wanted great things for his first-born. He wanted his girl child to be able to handle responsibility. So he gave me the name of his grandmother because she was the strongest and most spiritually powerful woman he knew.

I am not fat. People, I tell you my size in the first chapter of the novel so all you folks who think I’m tipping the scales at three hundred pounds, please. My author mom should have listened to her friend Sherlonya who told her to make me a size 14 instead of 16, Sherlonya knew that just like appearing on TV, appearing in a novel makes you look heavier than you are. I’m full figured but healthy. I’m not as beautiful as my sister, Jamila but then who else is? I guess I’m ranting about this to get to what’s important because what I look like had nothing to do with the reasons why I took bullets to save the life of that racist, Mr. Gilmore.

Being able to talk to the dead isn’t all cake and candy. The ancestors remind me that I have been given the power to talk to and for them so that I might help others live better lives. This explanation is supposed to be my balm from Gilead. I would be lying though if I said this knowledge completely soothes my soul or makes me feel more whole and less wounded as I try to help other with their problems.

I’m learning to cook. My aunt Peaches is teaching me how to make my favourite dessert, Better Than Sex Cake. It’s this flourless chocolate cake slathered with caramel, topped with cumulus mounds of whipped cream, flakes of toasted coconut, and huge twigs of chocolate shavings. It’s great. Now, I don’t know if it’s better than sex… um at least not yet. Anyway, if you ask my author mom she’ll hook you up with the recipe for the cake.

I am all about my music. If you want to know about me, and why I do things, marinate on some Coltrane because for me it is as he said, “No matter what … it is with God. He is gracious and merciful. His way is through love in which we all are. It is truly – A Love Supreme.”

A Book Grows in Michigan

I went to my favorite independent bookstore the other night and found my novel Act of Grace nestled next to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. The 14 year old girl that still lives inside me was in giggly open mouth awe as I took this picture. Betty Smith's novel was one of my absolute favorites when I was a teenager. I still have my food stained, yellow paged, dogeared copy. I remember dreaming of being an author as I read it over and over again. Never thought I would get to sit on the shelf next to my hero but book dreams can come true.

Next week I'll be hosting a give away of my novel and a CD of the blues music that helped inspire my character, Grace Johnson . Stay tuned for details !

Red Summer : The Race Riots of 1919

By Cameron McWhiter

Can't wait to read this book.

One of the most importan event in my novel ACT OF GRACE takes place during the bloody summer of 1919 or what was called Red Summer. Author Carmeron McWhiter has written an important book that tells about that summer when anti-black riots and lynchings swept the nation from April until November. Below is the link to an NPR interview with the author.

Cameron McWhirter: "Red Summer"

TALKING ABOUT GRACE.

The picture is me reading at my first book signing at Nicola's Books.

(I really do need to dye my hair)

Yea!! My first podcast. I was interviewed by a librarian friend for the Ann Arbor District Library blog. I talked about the many themes of my novel and about myself as an author. The production values are great but I still don't like my voice. Some folks think I have a wonderful laugh. All I will say is that I had a great time. Take a listen and if you can leave a comment on the blog or with the library about what you thought.

*Ann Arbor District Library Talks To Local Author Karen Simpson*

Book Launch -My Dream Picture

My sister -in -law Nancy took this picture of my readers holding up my book. I don't remember this happening but looking at this now makes me smile and think- WOW

The Dream Is Now True!

Early Praise for ACT of GRACE

“Grace’s intimate narration and folksy-but-modern-Southern-down-home voice immediately pulls the reader into the story. You can’t help but like her: she’s sassy, she’s smart, and when her Nana explains to her that she is to be a conduit for their ancestral spirits, you know immediately that the right girl was chosen for the task.”

Marlon Edwards-The Speculative Literature Foundation


My best dream is now true, my novel ACT OF GRACE will be available March 1, 2011.

I have wonderful new, shiny website put together by the publishing team at Plenary, so take a peek at www.karensimpsonwrites. Under the About the Novel Tab at the top of the blog, a fuller synopsis of the novel is also available

Working with my publisher Plenary Publishing has been a wonderful experience, full of adventures in the editing process and lessons on the art of being patient. Now, one part of the writing journey has ended and we are forging onward in to the wilderness of the marketplace.

Early orders for my novel can be placed on the Plenary website. Grace will also be available on Amazon, B&N or your local independent bookseller on the date of publication, and on your Kindle or Nook. And, if ACT OF GRACE isn’t in your store or library, please don’t hesitate to ask for it.

Thank you!!

When NO Is Not The End But A New Beginning

New writers often ask me : Who helped you the most on your road to publication?

My best answer is an agent who rejected my manuscript not once but twice. It was not a brutal set of NOs as in "Not ever you talentless hack" but a gentle set of NOs as in "Hold your horses newbie, writer, woman, you still got work to do." I remember receiving her letter in 2006 and being disappointed .

Dear Ms. Simpson

Thank you so much for allowing us to read ACT OF GRACE. This is certainly a heartfelt, dramatic, and compelling project, and one, which boasts a fresh and amazing concept. The possibilities here are limitless.

While there is much to savor her, and so much promise, I'm afraid I found the execution to be a bit rough. The narrative is, too often, uneven, and the voice tends to have a “ Young Adult” tone to its storytelling.

I just don’t think this book is yet where it needs to be (or could be, given its potential) but remain very interested in it. I encourage you to hire a freelance editor or book doctor, someone with professional savvy who can zero in on the book’s weaker spots, and advise on how to repair them and strengthen the execution as a whole. Should you opt to revise and work with an editor, I would love to take another look at this wonderful book. If not, I wish you the very best of luck with this project, and with placing it with the right agent.

I thank you again for the opportunity, and encourage you to keep working on this book.

Sincerely,

I was so excited, yet I was hurt, What do you mean my beautiful baby novel wasn't ready for the world, I kept thinking. It took a huge amount of chocolate cake and the booming voices of reason and sanity from my best writer friends to make me really look at what the letter was saying. Act of Grace was good but it could be better with more work. Still I was hurt because lord have mercy, I was as green as grass, and silly back then.

But a few days later I realized the agent was right, my novel was not ready for the world. I would also realize I didn't have the first clue on how to fix what was wrong. So I borrowed money from my beloved sister, and signed up for an extensive novel critique and several workshops. I sent my manuscript back 6 months later and the agent passed on it again saying it was better but still not good enough to sell. That time I shrugged, sat my butt down in front of my laptop and went back to work.

A couple of years and thousands of pages later I finally succeeded. Part of learning to write is learning to listen to criticism from other writers and professionals. If an agent cares enough about your work to reject it, but still takes the time to send advice your way, don't look at it as the end of the road, but rather, look at it as a set of new directions on how to continue your journey toward publication.