Kathy Walker's Roasted Asparagus - recipe

Kathy Walker's Roasted Asparagus

2 bunches of fresh asparagus

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt to taste

Wash and trim asparagus, so it is sand-free and the tough ends are removed.

Place asparagus in a roasting pan that has room to spread it out so that it is not layered thickly.

Drizzle with Olive Oil. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake in a medium oven for 35 minutes, or until tender.

Catching Up -- about ebook sales

We are working on payroll. It is taking more time this quarter as a higher percentage of authors have sold books than ever before. That's the good news.

Again, e-books are outselling print in vast numbers. The bad news is that most authors only sold one or two copies each, meaning that we must write many more checks, because we DO pay every penny due, every quarter. It's a time-consuming process, but a welcome one. Actually, paying authors is the thing we like best to do. The good news is that one enterprising author sold more than 2200 copies of her several titles. We can only hope she is as pleased as we are proud of her efforts.

Sales are up overall at every sales site, yes, even at Write Words, though we sell very few books directly from our own site anymore. Each sales site has it's own advantages and disadvantages.

Amazon (Kindle) sales are up the most by far, which is a good thing, as they pay the best royalties. Their "loan a book to a friend" policy--much bemoaned on some authors' lists as costing sales and so on -- qualifies for a MUCH higher royalty per sale. If the publisher does not check the block to allow a "loan" the book is only eligible for a lower royalty (about half). Also it means only that Kindle owners can share a purchased book with a friend (who also has a Kindle account) not distribute multiple copies of them to anyone, anytime, anywhere, and NOT sell them over and over again as "used books" on eBay. This whole policy is meant to get customers to urge their friends to buy Kindles, a strategy that will provide a wider customer-base to all of us. Average Kindle author payment (with loan checked) comes to $1.62 per title.

Barnes & Noble (Nook) sales are up, though they continue to be the poorer-paying market, and most of those are "library" sales, which are considered a 2-week "loan" of the book. The "library" file is downloaded by the customer, then disappears from the Nook reader automatically after two weeks, and if the buyer has not finished it, he must pay the full price to get it back as a keeper. Loan copies pay only a quarter of the book's List (whatever B&N decides to list it for) which the publisher and author then have to share. Average author payment for a Nook loaner is $0.69 while a permanent purchase goes for, again on average, $1.10.

Fictionwise sales for the quarter, are down. Some publishers have speculated (on the publisher's lists) that this may be due to Smashwords (a new distributor site that concentrates its efforts on self-published authors or publishers with very few titles). We do not participate in Smashwords, as they but duplicate the services already available through Fictionwise (making books available to customers and affiliates in many different formats) and do not have nearly as wide a list of affiliates as FW, though they do prepare files for listing in the iBookstore. We believe the sales drop at FW is caused by the number of people choosing to buy the new Kindle, or Nook, machines and thus moving to B&N or Amazon for direct sales. These two new machines, along with the iPad, each with it's own exclusive format, are presently dominating the e-book sales markets. And thus most new customers are buying books either in Kindle or Nook formats. Amazon lists all Kindle titles at iBookstore, as well.

Kindle has a free downloadable e-reader application for iPads (which are portable computers and are sold with no in-place e-reader software). In fact kindle (like its predecessor, Mobipocket) has free downloadable applications that will allow MOST Brands of e-book readers and almost all computers, to read e-books in kindle format.

Mobipocket continues to be our weakest large-distribution seller, as most customers are European (payment is in Euros) and we only sell books in English. Still, it's a worldwide market and one we will continue to pursue.

All Romance E-books/Omnilit continues to pay the highest royalty -- 70% of the list price (this was recently matched by amazon.com for those publishers who approve their customer loan policy. Also AR does very little discounting of publisher's list prices It is primarily a romance-readers site, still concentrates highly on erotica, and our sales there are not overwhelming, but still well worth the effort of listing your titles there. Average author payment for an AR sale is $1.90.

Coffee-Time continues at the bottom of the distribution lists, having sold 1 book for us in the last three months and none at all in the preceding quarter.

As always, our policy is to make our author's titles available to as wide a readership as possible, giving them opportunity for sales over a wide range of markets.

Finding Time to Write? -- writing tip

Question from the e-mail: I have a life, I'm the mother of teenagers, How can I ever find time to write?

Answer: I can't promise success, but will be happy to share my method.

When I first started to write, I was juggling a full-time job with teens, and college classes. Back then, I asked the same question of Alice Orr, who said, "Do it Anyway!" Believe it or not, that was a big help and made me sit down and think....

Part of my problem was feeling guilty. I believed I should not take time to write "away" from my family, when work and study demands were so stringent to begin with. So I tried to find time that wouldn't do that and ended up writing from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. (when everyone else got up) two times a week. This worked out well with my schedule as a newspaper reporter. I could write news copy tired, but I surely had to be fresh for fiction. And most of my novel Killraven, was written during the years I was a reporter on a daily newspaper with a 2-story a day quota.

The time worked well for me, because no one rapped on my door to ask me where the peanut butter was. Interruptions are the death of inspiration. Yes, I know, all the advice-givers and instruction books say to "write every day, even if it's only half an hour." But sometimes that's just not possible. Tuesday and Thursday mornings were possible then, in my busy life.

The "How to" books all say to “write every day” but that may not always be possible. Some writers, me for instance, can’t work in short bits of time. If I wrote 30 minutes a day, I’d never get anything done, as it takes me 30 minutes to figure out where I left off and what I want to do next and then to “think” myself into the kind of deep-concentration where the piece will flow.

Some writers can work 10 minutes at a time. I had a student who wrote on her laptop while she waited to pick up her kids at soccer practice. That’s great if you can do it. Works fine for those writers who work from a detailed outline. Others of us need a couple of hours at least. But if you did write 30 minutes a day, that’s still only 3.5 hours a week. For some of us every Saturday morning, or a couple of nights from 8 to 10 p.m. instead of TV, would give us more writing time than that proverbial half hour every day that the writing gurus advise. The trick is to set up a schedule that fits your life and then stick to it. If Saturday morning is your best writing time, and someone calls about a picnic, a golf game, or a shopping spree — you just have to say, “Sorry, I have a previous appointment.” Sometimes it helps to write it on your calendar, so it’s already there when you check for dates.

If you choose the wee, silent hours, as I did, then be careful not to do it too often. Even when things are going really well and you can hardly bear to stop, don't throw two many extra days in there, because if you do it every day you will soon find yourself falling asleep at your desk.

Each of us has talent, ability, time, and duty. Figure out your best time, find a practical compromise, and make a regular commitment to your work. First thing you know you will be feeling guilty about not writing. And that's the mark of a true professional.

Swedish Coffee Bread - Recipe

Carlene Dater’s Swedish Coffee Bread

Cream together, ½ cup butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar -

Add 2 beaten eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla. Mix well.

Add 2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder and ½ tsp. Baking soda. Mix in flour to form batter.

In a separate bowl, mix ½ cup chopped walnuts, 2 tsp. Sugar and ½ tsp. Cinnamon.

Put half the batter in a greased Angel food cake pan or, anyway a pan with a hole in the middle.

Sprinkle half the nut mixture on batter in pan. Add remaining dough then add the rest of the sugar/nut/cinnamon mixture on top. Bake one hour in 350-F or 177-C degree oven. Yummy.

Contributed by Carlene Dater, author of The Colors of Death...Proving yet again that no good deed goes unpunished, Callie Sue agrees to help her uncle while he is ill. But murder happens and Callie’s uncle is suspect #1. His employees act suspicious and Callie has a reputation to maintain as a snoop. The only other plus is that one of the police detectives is a charmer …

Opening Hooks: Writing tip

Question from the email: I received a letter from an editor who said, "Your opening hooks are weak or non-existent, especially the first," then she went on to say the rest of the writing was good. I know you talked a lot about hooks, but I thought they came at the ends of scenes. What's an "opening hook?"

Answer: The editor likes your work, or she surely wouldn't have taken up valuable time to write to you. It's so easy to reach for those pre-printed slips. Returning manuscripts is an unpleasant aspect of any editor's existence and most take the easy way out.

An opening hook is one that promises action-to-come to the reader, and it's usually attached to, or very near, the transition. The opening hook near the first line of a novel, should reflect the central problem that will challenge the protagonist of the story. There should be an opening hook in each scene, but none are so important as the first one in your book or short story.

One of my teachers sneered at hooks, saying they are the stuff of "hacks" and "pulp fiction" and had nothing to do with literature. I disagreed and was told to shut up, so maybe I'll sound off a bit here.

It's true, that hooks can be clumsily used by writers who still have to hone their skills. But just for the sport of it, lets take a look at some first lines of novels from authors with undeniable skill:

Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities. "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." This sentence certainly is a hook and a promise of action. The story is about the French Revolution.

Jane Austin: Sense and Sensibility. "The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex."

The story is about the Dashwood family having fallen on hard times and the key word (hook) in the transition is "had"....

Alexander DuMas (pere): The Count of Monte Cristo. "On the 24th of February, 1815, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signaled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples. As usual, a pilot put off immediately, and rounding the Chateau d'If, got on board the vessel between Cape Morgion and Rion island."

One may be justified in saying that there is no "hook" here, beyond the arrival of a ship and the inevitable fact that an assumed "someone" will arrive on it. Yet the story of Edmund Dante (who does arrive on the Pharon) is one of a man imprisoned in the Chateau D'If, and who later escapes, then has his fortunes change, making him extremely rich (through his many adventures upon the sea), until he reappears one day in Marseilles as the wealthy "Count."

Time has not labeled any of the above writers "hacks," though Dickens was pretty much considered one while he yet lived.

What do readers think? Are opening hooks important? Should they make a promise to the reader?

Dandelion Wine -- recipe

Mary Cox-Bilz’s Dandelion Wine

1 gallon Boiling water

2 qt. Dandelion blossoms

3 lb Sugar

1 Lemon; thinly sliced

1 tbsp Good yeast (If using powdered yeast, mix 1 pkg. in half a cup of lukewarm water before adding to the pot and do NOT add it until after pot cools to lukewarm.

Put blossoms in a large kettle and pour boiling water over them. Let stand 1 hour. Strain, add sugar to liquid, boil a little and skim. Allow to Cool.

When lukewarm, add lemon and yeast. Let stand 24 hours, then strain and put into sterilized clean Mason Jars or wine jugs, filling full as it’s working (with some room at the top) until only the impurities (lemon, etc.) are left in the bottom of the pot. The wine will be a beautiful pale gold color.

(In making this wine, be careful to keep all stems out, as they make the wine taste rank and give it a dark color). Seal tightly.

Contributor’s Note: Since I’m quadriplegic, I’ll get my sister Donna or my niece Jennifer to pick the dandelions. Then my Mom or Dad will do the thing with the boiling water, sugar, and Mason Jars. Then if it turns out well, I’ll just smile and say, “It’s my recipe!”

Contributed by Mary Cox-Bilz, author of How to Promote Advertise and Market Your Published Book (with Arline Chase)...A step-by-step guide that offers tools you can integrate in your own marketing plan....Marketing strategies that have been used by authors to pull their books out of boxes, onto book store shelves, and into a customer's hands.

Catching UP

Not much going on this week.

No print books went to press.

As most of you know, Shelley has been at a standstill this past two weeks, but I did my best to help out in the e-books line. The following Ebooks were completed:

VIENNA PRIDE

FIRE NEXT TIME

THE DROWNED LAND

ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

Shelley's new computer came and she is still loading software, but should be up and running soon.

We have done our best to get the new amazon portal up to date and running well. SOME books did not translate from Mobi reliably. Some seemed to "drop" their book files, so I have been busy for a couple of days making new files and re-deleting books that DID migrate, but to which we no longer have the rights. MOST of that is straight now.

Time to pay authors :)

My favorite thing to do.

arline