Terrific yay! We were able to manage our booth location information for the Boston Book Festival. Below is a map of the event layout. Cozy Cat Press will be holding court in booth 21, along Boylston street. BOYLSTON STREET!
Category: Inside Lane
Bacon, Big Game, and Blues–3 New Authors for You to Explore
I met three other lovely authors at the B&N signing yesterday, and I wanted to introduce you to them.
Ann Fisher wrote BETSY’S FIRST BREAKFAST, a picture book, about her childhood pet pig, Betsy. Betsy’s first breakfast is not as bacon, but as a guest of honor at the table. Ann told me that this is the first in a series of books about life on a farm, and they appear to be very sweet, lighthearted stories.
Lyn Gray wrote another picture book, THE GREAT HUNTER. It’s several years younger than his reading level, but Thor has already read it a few times because he likes the art and the story is very cute. Annie is a barky, little terrier, who is trying to catch big game, but can’t quite be quiet enough to keep from alerting them to her stalking. I resemble this remark and could easily identify with Annie.
Kartika R. Anderson and I shared a table, and she was lovely. She brought her mini-memoir about defeating depression through art, TURNING BLUE INTO BLUE. I haven’t had a chance to sit down with her book yet, but I’m looking forward to it. She’s getting excellent reviews on Amazon, and you know how much I love a memoir. Kartika is going to have a signing in Chicago next month, and I really wish I could head up there for that!
Check out these authors. All three have more works in the work, and I think you’ll be glad you took the time to investigate.
Hoo Dunnit
My dog ate my home work.
That is, my dog ate my ability to work at home. He dug up our FIOS line and ate through it, effectively turning back our clocks to 1939, leaving us without television, cable, internet, or even a landline phone.
We should have it back today, and then I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging.
Until then, enjoy this picture of Hoo. Happier days for him, before he landed in Puppy Jail.
Interview with the Author: Ris Writes Really Good Stuff
If you like fast-paced, down home, hot as the Georgia asphalt mysteries, then you need to meet Larissa Reinhart, who brings us Cherry Tucker’s world of Halo, Georgia. With her third book releasing in November, and the fourth being written right now, I thought it was a good time to sit down and have a sweet tea with Larissa.
The Outside Lane: I read your books out of order because I am a big fan of Brunswick Stew. It was very easy to pick up on your characters and their shared histories. With book 3 coming soon, and an anthology on the way, how are you bringing brand new readers up to date on Cherry Tucker?
Larissa Reinhart: Thanks Lane for having me! I’ve enjoyed getting to know you on Facebook and through my buddy LynDee Walker.
To answer your question, I think it’s tricky. I’m working on book 4 now and I try to keep character histories to a few sentences that can wrap up their relationship to Cherry without revealing too much about what’s happened in previous books. And do it in a humorous way. I kind of like the challenge. I’ll give you an example from Hijack in Abstract, book 3:
“Calling Shawna Branson an artist is like calling Ronald McDonald the King of Steaks.” Shawna Branson and I’ve hated each other since the days when we all hung out at the Tasty Dip. When I found out she was sharing her sprinkles with my boyfriend, I wrote her number on the men’s room wall. Accompanied by an explicit drawing of Shawna’s talents. Pretty good rendering for a cement block wall and a Sharpie. Instead of throwing a hissy, she should have thanked me for making her so popular.
TOL: I grew up in and around small towns in Alabama, Georgia, and Texas, and loved how true to form Halo and Sidewinder are. How did you create those towns, and their inhabitants.
LR: I grew up in small towns, too. There’s some universal qualities to country folk, I think. Wonderful characters. I believe where life seems simpler, it’s easier to distill everything into black and white. You can find salt of the earth generosity living next to some truly shiftless S.O.B.s. And because everyone’s life is exposed through the community grapevine, we all know who’s the angel and who’s the S.O.B. And they know it, too. Makes for interesting drama.
TOL: Cherry’s love life doesn’t seem to be going so well. Do you have a romance plotted out for her, or are you looking to see where the spirit takes you? (CherBear! –oooh, look, the spirit!)
LR: The romance is the hardest part for me. I thought I had some things plotted out, but she took me in a whole different direction. Cherry’s not ready to settle down. She needs to resolve her mother issues first. And because that’s a mystery I’m threading through the books, I feel like she should be able to sow a few oats. Without getting slutty. She’s got a big heart and there’s a lot of love for the three men in her life. She keeps veering back to Luke, but Todd’s always there for her and lately, Max, too. I really am not sure what she’s going to do. It distresses me. I’d rather write the action scenes.
By the way, my friend Terri L. Austin is a huge CherBear fan, too. Asone of my beta readers, Terri tries to strongly encourage Cherry in that relationship. She’s a bad influence.
TOL: Let’s talk anthology. Tell us about the process of writing an individual novella in tandem with two other writers. It’s got to be like sewing plaid. How do you make the lines match up?
LR: IT IS SO MUCH FUN! In the beginning, there was a flurry of emails about Memphis and the Heartache Motel. Not even story ideas, just random thoughts about Graceland, Elvis, and this crappy motel and how we would work it into a story. We’d send each other funny pictures (eventually they became a Pinterest board). I can’t even remember how we settled on Memphis. Or how these drag queens entered the picture. Terri L. Austin, LynDee Walker, and I can get a little goofy. But at some point, we just started writing and then began sending descriptions of the motel back and forth to each other. We’d just add in something mentioned in the other books. But the stories are so different, which is cool. I loved using all the Elvis references.
TOL: So you’ve written the book, sold the book, revised the book, published the book, and…what’s the most fun for you in the process?
LR: I like editing. I edit as I write. Once I get going, writing is fun, particularly when the unexpected happens. But editing is very soothing. I like playing around with words.
TOL: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from the first and second releases, to your upcoming third and fourth? What would you tell authors who are hoping for the same sort of success?
LR: You know, I’m not sure. Each time it’s been different. My first two releases were just before major holiday weekends, which my publisher has since learned is a bad idea. Not many books are sold during Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Everyone’s too busy grilling. So I have no idea what an early November and early December release will be like. I also have deadlines for other books near my launches, so usually I’m just trying to get through the launch.
My release for Still Life in Brunswick Stew was insane because it was the last week of school (I have an eight and ten year old) and I was room mom. And my dog went missing on launch day. And my friends from Minnesota were coming down for the weekend to stay with me. And I had to plan and work the end-of-school-year party for the whole fourth grade. I had two signings. Plus the start of a blog tour.
I have almost no memory of that week. Not until Saturday night, I sat around my patio with my friends and a bottle of champagne while we watched Brunswick Stew climb up the Amazon bestseller charts. That was pretty darn cool!
I am praying my next release is more relaxing. So, in response to your question, my advice would be, don’t plan anything else for your launch week. Especially not end-of-school-year-parties. Unless you enjoy nervous breakdowns.
TOL: What do you like to read?
LR: Everything! I’m not stuck on any one genre. I tend to find an author I like, then read everything they’ve published, then move on to another author. It could be mysteries, paranormal, romance, Young Adult, thrillers, horror, literary fiction, classics. I really react to voice more than anything else. I went through a Thomas Hardy phase some years back when I wasn’t even in school. Couldn’t get enough of Thomas Hardy. Then I moved on. It’s like a sickness. I do the same thing with TV shows since the invention of Netflix and Video on Demand.
TOL: Thank you so much, Larissa! Here’s hoping HIJACK IN ABSTRACT is your biggest seller yet!
Find out more about Larissa at:
And find out about all her books on her website bookshelf.
What I Would Tell a Daughter About Selfies
Since I’m getting emails and PMs about the girl side of things, I’ll address the girl side of things here.
So, I used to teach Sunday School for 6th Grade girls. When I took on the responsibility, I thought I was going to be–I don’t know what I thought I was going to be teaching, but it was NOT sex. I started reading through the lesson book, and halfway through BLAMMO sex/pregnancy/abortion. Uh…
I worried about a few things:
- I would accidentally warp these children.
- I would say something that would make concerned parents take up pitchforks against me.
- That the church hadn’t thoroughly vetted my thoughts on sex/pregnancy/abortion before handing their 12 year old girls over to me.
- What if one of the girls had been bad-touched, or was already sexually active and I said something that made her feel like a monster?
I worried most about the pitchforks.
At the time, I was single, had never been married, had no children of my own, and hadn’t been all the way around the block, so-to-speak. I had been bad-touched and was sensitive to that, and I had ducked down some of the block’s back alleys. I knew enough to be dangerous.
I knew enough to know that anything I said, could and would affect these girls for a long time, and I didn’t want to hurt any of them, and I didn’t want my words haunting them in regard to choices they might make in the future. We all do stupid things sooner or later. I wanted my words to be building blocks for them, not stumbling blocks.
So…I didn’t talk specifically about sex/pregnancy/abortion. I talked about choices, redemption and the Proverbs 31 Woman.
Because here’s how I feel: My job as an adult guiding children (or now, as a parent) is to help them learn to navigate rough waters by teaching them to reason, think, and adjust course. My job isn’t to give them marching orders (as a parent, my job is definitely giving marching orders along with instruction on the how and why.)
So, first I wanted those girls to know that they had autonomy, and they got to choose their futures. I wanted them to understand that good choices led to better futures, and good choices were things like eating well (I tried to touch on eating disorders because you never know), getting good exercise (because healthy bodies help promote healthy minds), doing your homework and reading for pleasure (because intelligent, educated women have a better chance to make good choices), working toward a goals in small increments (a good test, a good report card, honor roll, head of the class, etc.), and having a hobby or something fun to do, just for the love of it (because well-rounded women have their own interests.) And, I told them to make good friends because good friends are the best things in life, and good friends will keep you out of trouble. I have excellent friends, by the way.
Next, I wanted those girls to know that if they slipped up somewhere, it wasn’t the end of the world. Get a bad grade? Study harder/ask for help/do better next time. Hurt someone’s feelings? Apologize/learn from your mistake/don’t do it again. Eat a whole cake by yourself? Oof/see above.
And I told them that when they were focused on proper nutrition, their health, their studies, their hobbies, their goals, and their friendships, everything else would fall into place. When they were well-rounded people, they would attract the right kinds of attention. Predators are afraid of self-confident girls. Losers don’t try to smack around Margaret Thatcher or Hillary Clinton. No one crosses Wonder Woman–and no one ever tries to butt grab her, no matter how hot her pants are.
Then, I told them that wanting to have sex, or having sex didn’t make you a bad person. (Pitchforks!) I told them that purposefully hurting other people was what made a bad person. I read them the definition of the Proverbs 31 Woman, and asked them, first, if she seemed pretty awesome. She’s got her own house, runs a staff, dabbles in real estate, has a garden, has a fabulous wardrobe, people respect and like her… Sounds pretty good to me. I asked them if that was a woman who seemed focused on her looks, her hair, her boyfriend, or her popularity, and I asked them to consider what it would take to have your own home/business/amazing closet.
We talked about the choices you need to make to be a spectacular, independent woman, and we talked about what might set you off course. I told them that is why they should wait to have sex. Because they had dreams, and plans, and goals, and wanted houses, and cars, and jobs, and careers, and having a baby before you were ready would mean putting all that on hold, or putting it aside all together. And, I told them that an STI can really slow you down, or kill you, too.
I wanted them to understand I wasn’t trying to protect their chastity. I was trying to teach them how to protect their ability to make choices. Having sex too soon can rob you of your autonomy, and rob you of choices. (Then I quit teaching Sunday School because I was mentally exhausted. I went and taught Adult Singles, thinking that because I was one, it would be easier. Ha!)
That’s what I would tell my own daughter, repeatedly. And when the hormones kicked in and she couldn’t hear me through the throbbing in her loins, there would be that little voice in the back of her head saying, “Guh! I know Harry Styles is so hot! But I don’t want to be just his back-up singer. I want my own band! And he can fall in love with me because I am so awesome and independent, not just because I’m fawning all over him.”
I know that because that’s what kept me off the tour buses I got invited onto.
I didn’t need AIDs or a baby.
So, when it came down to selfies, I would ask my daughter why she wanted to take them, and if they helped her further her goals/dreams/aspirations. If they didn’t, I’d ask her what she thought they did do. We’d talk about it, and if she didn’t come the right conclusions, I’d take away her access to cameras and stuff some cotton in my ears to muffle the wailing. Because I’d still be the parent and you don’t let a kid drive on the wrong side of the street just because it seems like a good idea to them.
The Outside Lane 