Me, Too

   I experienced sexual harassment In 1976 when I was nineteen years old. I worked in the accounting department of Buffalo Electric Company in downtown Houston, Texas. My boss was the Chief Financial Officer and Vice-President of the company. He had a corner office with a plate glass window that looked out over the five women and one man in our office. The President had an identical corner office opposite him. When I was first hired my fellow colleagues warned me about Don, our boss. “Don’t ever get caught alone with him,” they said. I thanked them for the warning and forgot about it. A few months later, he tricked me as sexual harassers are apt to do. A customer called and needed us to go run down a part in the warehouse. I wasn’t quite familiar with the layout of the warehouse yet. He would gladly show me where the part was located. We walked out into the warehouse past aisle after aisle of metal shelves twelve feet high. I was awed by all of the thousands of parts. Before I knew it we had walked to a quiet corner of the warehouse. “It’s right down this aisle,” he said. We walked to the end of the aisle. He pointed to a high shelf in the corner. I began to read the part numbers on boxes, then realized his long arms were trapping me, one on the wall and one on the shelf. I turned around, panicked to realize I was trapped in the corner. He smiled lasciviously; he thought he had me and he moved in and tried to force a kiss on my lips. I didn’t have time to think. I slipped out from under him so fast he did not have time to grab me and I ran all the way back to the office.

Tell Everyone

   There were no sexual harassment laws back then but there was a way to be empowered. When I returned to the office I told everyone what had just happened. We all decided to go to lunch together the next day and discuss what to do. We made a plan. We decided none of the women in the office would ever go into the warehouse with Don alone, or the one young man who worked in our office and ran the com system would go instead to run down parts when needed. That is exactly what happened. From that day forward that young man quickly volunteered to run down all of the parts, even though it was not his job. My boss never bothered me after that because we never gave him an opportunity to do so.  I think he sensed something had changed. We were all a lot closer to each other after that day. We were comrades united against a common cause. Another young girl got hired fresh out of high school. Don tried his dirty tricks on her but one of us always intervened. The remainder of my time in that office Don was quite grumpy and did not attempt to socialize with us nearly as often as he used to. I think this closeness and camaraderie is what so many women are feeling now with the “Me, too” movement. Far too many women and men have endured sexual harassment perpetrated by those in power over them. I am encouraged by the veracity of the movement and the concrete change the women who started the Time’s Up organization seek.

Time’s Up

   Time’s Up has already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help people who are victims of sexual harassment, mostly women, but some men, too. This is a wonderful beginning. This money will be needed the most by the powerless working class women and men who courageously decide to file legal harassment charges against their abusers, who are almost always their superiors in the workplace. But as more women step forward and tell their story we must steel ourselves for the inevitable push back to come. Do not doubt this will happen and it will be powerful men who will lead the charge. Those in power will begin to grumble about accusers and how they can ruin careers with their accusations. They will claim that if a woman has a vendetta against her boss, all she has to do is play the sexual harassment card. It will suddenly sound as if the accusers are  the ones doing something wrong. It will all be designed to get victims of sexual harassment to go back into the shadows and keep quiet. Even with all of this support, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to come forward. The victim who comes forward often has to face unfair judgement from her peers. She will often be whispered about in hallways as that person who got the boss fired. Don’t listen to any of the nonsense and just remember to be honest with yourself about what you are experiencing and if you don’t want to report it, for whatever reason, that is your prerogative, but at least remember my experience and warn your other coworkers so you can keep each other safe.

Writing 101:  Simple Tips on Becoming a Better Writer

A lot of writer’s blogs today talk about marketing your work. There are so many books out there you must work constantly on the marketing side to get your work noticed and achieve success. But the question I get asked the most by readers is, “How do you come up with your stories?” Some people think every character I create is an exact portrait of a real person in my life and every scene is something that actually happened to me.  If they know me they try to guess which character represents what real person. That is not really how it works. A lot of what happens in fiction comes from a mixture of life experience, direct observation and the writer’s imagination and usually characters contain a mix of real attributes the writer has encountered in people and fictional ones. A good writer has to utilize all of those and come up with a compelling plot and follow a story arc similar to a play’s three acts, moving toward a climactic and satisfying conclusion. Ack! Yes, it is hard work. (I add that caveat because I’ve had other people say, “Oh, you are so lucky to be born with talent like that,” as if the ability to write a full length novel was handed to me like my naturally curly hair or my brown eyes!)

Being a Writer is Like Being Crazy

     The best advice I would give to writers is to try to write every day, even if it is just for five minutes. This is something I still aspire to and do not always achieve. Before the Christmas holidays I was working on my new novel, Three O’clock Moon. I had momentum and I was working on it nearly every day. Have you ever thought of Christmas as an interruption? If so, you may be a writer. Sometimes, as much as I love Christmas, I do feel that way. Or, I have considered daily life, I.e., cooking, performing household duties, in essence, reality as an interruption into a story I am working on. The fictional world I have created is extremely real to me. When I am working on a story or a novel, the characters I’ve created are rattling around in my head having conversations whether I am sitting at my computer working or driving to the post office or grocery store. Sometimes my characters talk out loud through my mouth. It’s true! I hear voices and talk to imaginary people. Being a writer is exactly like being a crazy person! Only instead of sending you to an asylum, people send you money! (Ha-if you successfully market and sell your books, that is!)

     Seriously, I do try to remind myself to pay more attention to reality and whatever is happening in my life at any given time. Whenever I go into a restaurant I listen to conversations from nearby tables. I don’t listen so much to what people are saying as the way they are speaking. This gives me an instinct for dialog. Actors frequently do this. Standing in line is another good way to observe people. As writers we must not only be good observers but good listeners, as well. Whether you are at the grocery store or the DMV watch, listen, smell. Let’s take the grocery and use it as an example of how a writer might turn an ordinary every day experience into fiction.

As I stood in line at the grocery the other day I smelled cinnamon from a Christmas display near the checkout. There was a very old man in front of me who had a couple of cans of generic chili and a box of saltines and some generic canned fruit in his basket and a lady behind me who was talking on her mobile phone. Here is an example of how a writer could use this real life experience and turn it into a fictional scene to perhaps illustrate a character’s mood or give the character depth.

A Christmas display was set up next to the fast lane line at the grocery. As usual she was running late getting to her sister’s house.  She was in a sour mood, didn’t really enjoy going over there- it seemed like all they cared about was showing off their latest fancy acquisition. Her sister had already told her she had bought her husband a three thousand dollar grill for Christmas. Hmph! She could buy Harold a new riding lawn mower for that. As she waited in line she perused the display. There were Christmas curios from snowmen to Santas to snow globes. There were holiday-themed napkins and plates; a bin filled with cinnamon scented pine cones. The spice permeated the air throughout the check line. The smell of cinnamon always made her smile. Growing up cinnamon always meant Mama’s cinnamon sugar crumbled coffee cake was in the oven and that meant it was Christmas morning. She glanced into her basket at her store-bought pies nobody in her family ever ate- a pumpkin and a cherry. Her sister always made some gourmet dessert like chocolate mousse or cherries jubilee to set upon her shiny chrome and glass dining table. One year she spent three hours making chocolate and lemon meringue pies and nobody even tried a taste of them. She swore to never go to the trouble again. How she missed those normal turkey dinners her mother used to make with pumpkin and pecan pies for dessert!

Suddenly she noticed the arthritic old man in front of her. His lanky arms were all nobs and angles. He stood slightly stooped over, his spine in the shape of a question mark, with the lower part curving inward and the upper part bowing outward. He had a few cans of generic chili, a box of saltines and a couple of cans of generic peaches. She felt like an awful ass, complaining about having to go and eat a gourmet Christmas dinner! He shuffled forward a few steps and placed his items on the conveyor belt to check out. She put her pies on the conveyor and impulsively pushed them against his cans of chili.

“Put this all together,” she said to the cashier, a wrinkle-faced old woman with curly gray hair and kind brown eyes.

The old man turned his whole body around to look at her.

“Merry Christmas,” she said, looking into his rheumy eyes, which sparkled like Christmas twinkle lights when he smiled.

“Well, Merry Christmas,” he said tentatively, as if he wasn’t accustomed to talking much. Then, a little more boldly he exclaimed, “Merry Christmas,  young lady! Merry Christmas!”

After she swiped her credit card and paid, she slipped the pies into one of his bags. He hadn’t even noticed.

“Merry Christmas,” the cashier called after her as she hurried out of the store with a smile on her face, feeling the spirit of Christmas for the first time in a long while.

If you want to be a good writer, keep observing, keep listening and write, write, write!

Send Out Copies of Your Book

   Send out copies of your book before publishing it to get reviews, and/or buzz before your official book launch. I did not do this with my novel, Leah’s Garden. I began writing this novel many years ago and after several failed attempts to procure a publisher or an agent, I finally decided to publish it myself in the Amazon age of self-publishing. It was a huge undertaking for me as I am not what I would call computer savvy. I simply figured that publishing it and attempting to get all of the little details right would be the most difficult part of the undertaking. I did publish it, opened a Facebook and Twitter account with author page and told all of my friends that I had published a book. So, I asked myself-what else can I do to get my novel, Leah’s Garden, noticed out of all the millions of other books on Amazon?

Getting Noticed

   I checked out all of the local bookstores in the Tulsa area. The only stores in Tulsa that sell new books are the big chains like Barnes and Noble and Books a Million. I knew if I could get a signing at one of the big stores I would maybe be able to convince the Tulsa World newspaper to put a notice in the paper about my signing.  I quickly discovered that being an Amazon author would limit me to selling on Amazon and Kindle, almost exclusively. Many self published authors are content to sell their books that way. In fact, most sources I read on the subject did not recommend self published authors bother trying to get their books into the bookstores. Getting my book into bookstores and libraries is exactly what I wish to do, because my ultimate goal is to get noticed and someday get a publisher.  Through research I found out that I would need to be published on Lighting Source/Ingram for a big chain like Barnes and Noble to even consider letting me do a signing.

   I decided to put that on the back burner and I kept calling bookstores in the area and all except one sold used books and were not interested in doing signings for local authors. That is how I discovered Another Chapter Bookstore located in Owasso, Oklahoma, about fifteen minutes from Tulsa.  Its wonderful owner, Karen Barros, a former elementary school teacher, had a lifelong dream of opening a small new book bookstore and after she retired, she did just that. In an age where independent book stores find it hard to compete against the big chains and Amazon, she has proven it can be done. She supports local authors by not only giving them book/launch signings but also actually stocking local authors’ books. Her bookstore has a coffee shop and a large children’s section plus child-sized table and chairs to make their space inviting. Children are encouraged to take a book off the shelves and sit down and peruse it at leisure. If Karen is in her office she will often come out and offer to read to them. She plans a full calendar of events each month. I am grateful-she gave me my first book launch. I called the local newspapers and managed to get a notice into the Owasso Reporter. I put out a few reminders on Facebook and Twitter leading up to the day. I sold nineteen books that day. Okay, that was all of my family and friends. I had worked hard to get that signing and it felt good to feel like a real author. But it was only the beginning.

Don’t Give Up

   Next I published on Lightning Source/Ingram. Ingram is actually the warehouse/distributor for most of the books in North America, including all of the big five publishers. Lightning Source is a Pay on Demand publisher, exactly like Amazon, only their quality is more consistent, as Amazon uses multiple printing sources. And with Lightning Source, a bookstore can buy your book at a 55% discount, exactly as they do from say, Random House books, and stock it and whatever copies don’t sell they can write them off and get a refund! So a Lightning Source/ Ingram author should be able to have his book stocked just like any other.  I walked into Barnes and Noble hoping to get a signing. They told me they cannot do signings for POD books, because they cannot order them. Right. Okay, so I go home, deflated, cried a little, dried up those tears and did more research. Turns out Barnes and Noble has a small press office where a small publisher can send a copy of the book, a press release and a review of the book to them and tell them why they should order the book and you must jump through this hoop and if they agree to stock your book, they will change it in the computer from POD to warehouse, even though it is the same POD Lightning Source book. Argh.

   I have made up a press release, and I have researched reviewers and sent copies of Leah’s Garden to them. Another way to get noticed is to send your book to contests/awards. When I went to the awards websites I noticed all of the past winners had a publisher, so I decided if anybody was going to take me seriously I would have to create a publishing company with sole proprietorship. This took a little research and a fifteen dollar fee to my state secretary’s office. Then, I had to change all of my copies at Amazon, Kindle and Lightning Source/Ingram. It was gratifying and well worth the effort to see Green Garden Press on the front pages of my novel. Do your research. There are a lot of awards programs out there that are not legitimate. Beware of the awards programs that have too many categories or if they offer to sell you stickers for your book. I sent over twenty copies out to about five or six awards programs (they often require more than one copy of your book). Now I am waiting to hear back from somebody or get a review. I have reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but unfortunately, those don’t count.

   I also did a Goodreads giveaway. I am thinking of doing another one for Christmas and maybe look into discounting my book for Christmas sales. One thing I have learned as a publisher is that you never stop trying to get your book noticed. I keep active on my social media accounts and work on the next novel. I am aiming to be finished with it by sometime next summer.

A Poem Is A Poem Is A Poem…

My pentameter’s ru’ned, I can’t find my pen,

My brain ha’nt been fluid, since I don’t know when.

I know I shouldn’t worry, a poet I’m not,

My rhythm is sorry but you say, so what?

You tell me it’s simple, a task such as this,

My muses are rippling with laughter and jest.

“A few thoughts on paper-one deems it good verse,

A rhyme and a rhythm, a style oh so terse.”

I’ve sat and I’ve stared at this paper until

The moss and the rots gone and covered my will.

Maybe I’ll just think up a story next time.

A rose is a rose is…Well, nothing else rhymes!

CL May

The “B”Word

   I have noticed a  trend among young women of calling each other bitch. They say “These are my bitches” or “what a bitch I  was when that picture was taken” or “Hey, bitches, what ya think about my new profile.” This may seem innocuous, just urban vernacular, but I believe it is harmful, detrimental even, to the healthy identity of young women.

   Young women calling each other bitches is akin to blacks calling each other nigger. Nigger entered our vocabulary to degrade and demean. When blacks began using the “N” word amongst themselves, many claimed they were taking control of these demeaning terms and by using the word nigger and “owning”  it they were diluting its power against them. Bitch was introduced for the same reason-to demean and degrade. Perhaps young women think that calling each other bitch is okay, as long as they are the ones saying it to each other.

The “F” Word

   Whether using the “N” word or the “B” word, you could substitute it with the word friend. If you are a young black man and you are hanging with your friends and calling each other nigger all of the time, you can bet this emboldens people who are not your friends to call you that. The more they hear it, the more in use it is, the more likely they are to use it. And if you are a young woman and you are hanging with your friends and calling each other bitch and ho and any other derogatory term you can bet all of the guys and all of the women who are not your friends are certainly going to call you a bitch and a ho.

You Are Beautiful Young Women

   You are not a bitch or a ho or any of the horrible words created to cause pain and no matter whether people use them against you or you use them amongst yourselves they still cause harm. Every time you want to call yourself or your friends a bitch, try substituting the word friend instead. Say the “F” word loud and say it proud. Don’t say, “These are my bitches,” say “These are my friends.” Don’t say, “Ahh. She knows she’s my friend. I don’t have to tell her. She knows when I call her bitch, I’m just being cool like everyone else.” Don’t be afraid to tell her she is your friend. There will be plenty of times in her life when she will be called a bitch. Don’t let those times be you calling her that. And ditto for yourself. Show respect for yourself and your friends. You might be surprised how it makes other people treat you.  You and your friends are beautiful young women, not bitches.

    How I Became An Indie Author

I am finally a published author. When I started this whole process I not only had no idea what I was doing, but I am not very computer savvy. I did not even have a FaceBook page until a couple of months ago! I opted to do everything myself. But where should I start? I Googled it. First, I decided to do the print book. I did my own editing and formatting and I did my own cover. I’ll talk about the cover later in this article. When I began the formatting and editing process, it seemed each time I fixed one thing something else changed and I had to correct that and each time I corrected the part that had changed, something else would go wrong. I became frustrated but I did not give up. I did 16 versions of the interior before I got it right. I was not joking when I said I was not computer savvy. Each time I had a problem I Googled the problem and found an answer.

I knew beforehand that I wanted to download one of my paintings for the cover. If you ever read my novel, Leah’s Garden, you will understand why I wanted my painting of Claude Monet’s Japanese Garden to be the cover of my book. I had no idea where to start or how to do it. A friend recommended Krita, a free paint program. A lot of people do their covers on that site. I am sure it is a good site but when I checked it out I could see right away it was for people who were much more experienced with such programs. It was too complicated for me. So I Googled it. This was how I discovered Canva.com. Canva has a free site that allowed me to choose custom dimensions and download my photo for the front cover.  They have a huge database of shapes, lines, lettering and colors, all of which you can use to create your spine and back cover. After many tries (12 to be exact) I had my cover and uploaded it to KDP.

The Ebook Should Be Easy

According to Amazon KDP all you have to do is push a button or two and convert the files for your ebook. I already knew this was not a good idea because I had Googled it and found out a lot of authors out there had bad experiences doing it that way. First, I had to do another cover, so I went back to Canva and they already had a Kindle format cover. I love Canva! The interior was another story. I thought, surely my download will be near perfect, as I spent so much effort fixing any mistakes on the print version. I downloaded the Microsoft 10 docx file of my interior, supposedly an approved format for Kindle. They claimed there would be no problem, they would convert it to the Kindle format. This did not work. Even though they accepted it, whenever I downloaded the free review to my Kindle to check it there were several formatting and space issues. So I Googled it and found numerous threads on Kindle forums that agreed this was not a good format for Kindle even though Kindle approved it. Next I Googled what to do about it and I found out that I needed to convert it to mobi/Kindle format and resend it to Kindle. It didn’t work, of course because I did not have a program on my Windows 10 that could do that. I Googled it and discovered HelpnDoc, a wonderful free (for my own use) software program. They had editing capabilities before conversion so I was able to fix a few formatting issues and take out the page numbers and headers from there. Once I created a good copy and fixed any mistakes I downloaded it to my computer as a mobi file and it loaded into Amazon perfectly and looked great on my Kindle.

An Author Needs a Website

After I completed my print book and ebook I read that any serious author needs a website. How on earth would a techno-phobe like me create a website? This was the only thing I did not Google. In Self-Publishing Books 101 by Shelley Hitz and Heather Hart, they advise every indie author needs a website. I recommend their book to all beginning authors who are going to self-publish their work. They also have much helpful advice on their website at trainingauthors.com . They recommended InMotion Hosting company for the beginning indie author. They have WordPress. I signed up for their plan. It costs less than ten dollars per month. A fellow indie author had previously advised me not to choose a free hosting company because their many popup ads slow down your site and might annoy your users. I was able to build my website through them and along the way I Googled numerous questions, and answers were always available in the form of well-designed tutorials from InMotion. Thanks to Google I did not have to slog through hours of tutorials-I only had to watch the ones that were pertinent to my situation.

A Dream Come True

I always wanted to be a published novelist and now I am one. No matter whether my book sells or does not sell, I did it. This has been quite a challenging and fulfilling journey for me yet I know I am just beginning. Of course I am grateful to Amazon for having this self-publishing avenue and opportunity for indie authors but I could not have done any of this without Google. Google is so fast and accurate and useful I think we sometimes take it for granted. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for Google. Each and every time I had a problem I Googled it and found a solution. I also want to thank all of the people out there who so generously share their experiences and knowledge with new authors like myself. CL May