RT Convention

As count down for the release of Say You'll Be Mine officially started for me this month with the the reciept of my cover image, I've been busy with the usual - getting bookmarks printed, planning workshops, preparing for contests, and establishing a Facebook page for the book itself, which I've officially launched - yay! You should be able to "Like" by searching for the title. Otherwise, here is the link.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the RT Convention at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, and it was so much fun. I met so many wonderful readers - maybe some of you!

Hatchett Book Group had an amazing banner outside of Club RT with the title of books that will be released soon. I was excited to see Say You'll Be Mine there!! Since I could't take the banner (though I wanted to) I took a picture.

The setting for Say You'll Be Mine is in the wine country of Temecula Valley in California and the wine capital of Argentina, Mendoza. So, starting this month, I'll be featuring various wineries in Southern California that you may be interested in visiting. And there will be a fun contest connected with the winery series. Check back on Wednesday, May 4th for more details.

Hugs,

Julia

Say You'll Be Mine

My new cover !! This week, I got the cover image for my upcoming book, SAY YOU'LL BE MINE, and I absolutely love it!! I think it's the best cover I've ever had. Not only does it maintain the beautiful blues from EVENINGS, but it captures the romantic feel of our Califoria vineyards. The elegant table in front with the miss-matched chairs is inviting and just . . . perfect.

I hope you all like it as much as I do!!!

The idea for SAY YOU'LL BE MINE came to me about four years ago, way before EVENINGS, and yet I had to sit with it for a long time to decide exactly how I wanted to present it.

One weekend I visited a winery out in Temecula, California and it was late afternoon. The warmth of the day was still hanging in the valley, but it was growing cooler and I found a warm place to sit and take notes about the tour I'd taken. But as I sat there, I thought about how peaceful and wonderful it was outside and how anyone lucky to live on a vineyard would be so fortunate. Then my thoughts sort of wandered and what came to me was this vague idea of a woman who from the outside had every reason to be happy - a successful vineyard, money, power - and yet wasn't happy at all. I wasn't sure why at the time, but eventually this woman grew into Isabel, the owner of Gallegos Winery.

Whereas my Lara Rios books and even EVENINGS have been stories about the immigrant experience and adapting to being a Latina in America, SAY YOU'LL BE MINE is the first book that doesn't touch on that theme. Even though it pays a long visit to Argentina as Isabel goes to rescue three children, this book is about family and motherhood and what truly makes people happy.

It will be released in October 2011.

Julia

Yard Sale Update and Screen Writing

Last week's girl scout yard sale was a big success.

We had so many great things to sell, including coffee and muffins!

The moms all worked hard, getting up early, posting signs, and getting the best price for all items.

"How much are these skates?"

"We're asking $5, but we'll take $4, and even $3."

"I pick $3," the customer said, probably thinking these women are suckers.

Okay, so we weren't the best sales women, but we had fun, and the girls helped out too. Mostly by buying each other's stuff. My daughter came home with two stuffed animals and a pillow pet. Okay and I came home with candles. I love candles!

Only bad thing is that I hurt my back dragging a dang tarp full of clothes. It's made for a miserable week. But I'm hopeful that it will heal quickly.

This week our little group started their cookie fundraising. I won't bore you cookie selling stories. But remember to support those

smiling little girl scouts in your neighborhood.

Now on to writing related news. Are there any screen writers out there? Here is a great contest. If I had the time, I'd enter it myself.

E-mail: cynosure@broadmindent.com

Web Site: http://www.broadmindent.com/id10.html

Program URL: http://www.broadmindent.com/index.html

SYNOPSIS: The sponsor will award two $3,000 cash prizes: one tothe best feature-length script with a female protagonist and one tothe best script showcasing diversity. Deadline(s): 03/19/2011

Good Luck!

Julia

Yard Sale Anyone?

I'm getting ready in a few hours to go "prepare" for a ten family yard sale tomorrow. We're going to sort and price all the items that we're happy to have eliminated from our house and garages. There will be pizza and beer and it will be a blast. Since I hate yard sales, this is what I keep telling myself.

I remember saying last year that I would not anymore yard sales, but I caved on this one. The goal is to do a funraiser for our girl scout troop, but as of today, I haven't gotten approval to raise money for my scout troop. So, it has now become simply a yard sale.

Why I'm I not a huge fan of yard sales? People sell the weirdest things, don't they? I always think, if I don't want this, why would anyone else want it? I found this on the internet. Someone selling a casket. Hey, why not? Of course, I'd put one of my relatives in a casket I bought at a yard sale! Especially if I didn't like them very much.

Plus you have to get up super early to put all the junk out in your driveway, and a few hours later put most it back in. Waste of time.

Then there are those signs you have to make and hang. Ugh. I love to write, but making yard sale signs have to be the most boring, uninspiring chore every. I've tried to get my kids to get creative with them, and even they can't do it. But I did find a couple of funny examples on the internet.

Maybe I'll try these.

Well, I'll post some of my own pictures tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Julia

Intellectual Property

This morning I woke up thinking of intellectual property. For a couple of reasons, but probably the most likely is that I finally got a chance to watch The Social Network last night and was intrigued about the question of who really "owned" the idea for Facebook. The whole idea of creating something and owning it is a tricky one, I think.



Ideas are everywhere, literally. For writers in particular you're bombarded with ideas if you're alive. Everywhere you go there are stories, settings, conflicts that you read about, hear about, see first hand, and it all gets filtered into an author's head. Everything in a book came from somewhere and even if an author says he made it all up, we know that isn't entirely true. The fictional world an author "made-up" is extapulated from influences that the author has had. Even a different world from Avatar has touches of Native American culture and nature. It wasn't really invented by the writers.

Still, most writers that I know, myself included, try extremely hard NOT to write anything that has been written before. Impossible, really. How many ways are there to describe a kiss, for example. There are lines in romance books that make me scream every time I read them. Some version of, "the smile didn't reach his eyes." Ugh!!!!! Everytime I read this, I think "can't this author come up with something more original than that?" It's been used in millions of romance books and if the first person that wrote it could have gotten royalties on just that line, she'd be a rich woman.

But I'm digressing, the point, I think is that when writing about something like a kiss, writers are going to find it difficult to be completely original. How it happens, when it happens, etc. will be different, but a kiss is a kiss (and hasn't that been said before). And even plots won't be completely original. One romance, thiller, horror novel can sound very much like another, because the stories about falling in love or behing chased by a monster (can be one and the same) has been told a million times. What an author CAN be original about is how the story is delivered. All the experiences the author has in this world are filtered through that person's perspective and then they produce the book you love to read or a movie like Avatar.

As far as Zuckerberg and the other Facebook creators, The Social Network does a good job of showing how each of them had a part in developing the site, a how touchy this thing called intellectual property can be.

Now, off to Facebook to post this blog!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Julia

Writing a Best Selling Novel

Have you ever wondered what makes a best selling novel? It's usually preceeded with New York Times, or Los Angeles Times, or USA Today Best Selling book/author. That's because along with Publisher's Weekly, Book Sense, and to some degree Amazon.com they are the ones compiling the list of books that "make it" to the best seller lists.





Most people assume that best selling books are actually best selling books, meaning that book stores have sold more copies of this book than any other or that they passed a magical number that puts them into a best selling category. To a certain extent that's true. But it's actually more complicated than that.





According to John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, the New York Times sends a list of book titles to select bookseller around the country and asks them to state how many copies of those books were sold for the week. The pre-selected list is determined by the books publishers are supporting with heavy publicity and heavy print runs; or by something like celebrity status or sales history of the author which the NYT knows will draw customers to purchase that book.





The other lists work pretty much the same way.





This means that an author's book that might have sold more than one of those on the list for a certain week might not be counted in the bookstores being polled. If the book is sold through independent bookstores, it would not be counted for NYT and company. If the book sold at Walmart or Costco (though if it's at Costco, it's probably already a bestseller) it would not be counted.





The actual number of books that have to be sold differs per book, so not every book that passes a certain number becomes a best seller. One book might have to sell 15,000 books in a week to be considered a #1 best seller, another might only have to sell 5000, depending on the category it's listed under and what other books are competing for the spot that same week.





Of course, I like to think that great writing also plays a role. At least in fiction. Awesome, unforgetable characters, great plots, entertaining for the genre - so exciting for an adventure book, emotionally rich for women's fiction, and so on.





So, does my fall release of SAY YOU'LL BE MINE have a chance of hitting NYT bestseller status? Knowing what I do about how books get there, I'd have to say I don't have a chance in hell. My print run itself would probably take me out of the running. Still, it's my top goal for the year. Not because I'm stupid or naive, but because I'll have a book out this year and why not shoot for the top. I will not be disappointed if I only sell out my print run : )

End of the Year Thoughts

My biggest goal for 2010 was to do less. I entered the year overwhelmed and just plain exhausted so I vowed that in 2010 I would do less and refuse to let things in life control me.

I failed miserably. And I can't say that I'm upset about that, because I've come to realize that being tired and overwhelmed isn't always a bad thing if the things that are occupying your time are good things.

I'm often tired because I've spent my week teaching my kids who are partially home schooled. I've attended their swimming, piano, guitar, Lego team practices.

I've led my girl scout troop through cookie sales and surf camps and nature hikes and countless meetings to help them earn badges and learn new things.

I've connected with friends on Facebook, and attended get-togthers with others where we laughed and talked until we were too tired to continue.

I traveled to Spain with my mom and learned a bit more about one of the branches of my latino roots.

I've gotten to hold my baby niece in my arms and watch my brother become a dad.

I've read books and gone to book club meetings.

I've tutored young kids in writing, and gotten involved in university life where I've been able to read the work of young, talented new writers and provide feedback on their work.

I've made a full year's progress toward my MFA.

I've blogged to you all about my life and thoughts.

I completed a new book that will be out next year, and am almost finished with a draft of another book.

I've cooked, and cleaned my house, and walked my dogs, and done tons of chores that aren't much fun, cut make living much nicer.

So, for 2011, I've decided I don't want to do less. I want to do and have more this time around, because I can't imagine giving up any of it. More fun, more friends, for great times with my kids. I want to write more than I did last year. I want more money (okay, I wanted that last year too!). I want to read more books. I want to work out more and have more energy. I want more happiness. I want more time . . .

I'm glad that I didn't get what I wanted in 2010, but look forward to 2011 and my new overarching goal.

I hope 2011 brings more of what you want as well!

Happy New Year!

Julia