Announcing a Winner!

Way back when, I announced a contest – anyone in Bellingham, WA or Los Angeles, CA who got their butts into either Village Books or Skylight Books and found copies of my books and took pictures of them and sent them to me, would get a free copy of UnCommon Faire: A Fiction Sideshow, a collection of short stories, most of which have been published in different publications over the last few years.

Well, that was a month ago, and no one’s sent in a pic so I’m declaring an end to that contest. But my mom did actually tool through Village Books in Bellingham to hunt down my books, so she won a copy of UnCommon Faire, and the other spare copy went to a friend as a thank you gift. And I think that’s the end of my trying to market books through blogs and contests. It ends up costing a lot of time and energy and money (copies of books and postage) and doesn’t seem to up the sales any. But at least I can say I tried.

Which isn’t to say I am not going to be writing anymore, but I’ve noticed that I when I try to put energy into writing, marketing my work, working at the paper, and finding and doing work for my business, Putt Putt Productions, something always gets dropped. Usually, it’s the writing bit, which is the most important for the feeding and care of my soul. And I can’t afford to drop working at the paper or finding and doing work for my business because that is important for the feeding and care of my body. So, for now, all the marketing efforts will need to be shelved. I’ve saturated the small group of people this blog and FB and the other social networks reach, and I can’t seem to reach further than that.

Time to pull back, regroup, and stick to what I know, or at least kinda know. I can’t afford to keep trying to get people to buy books I can’t even seem to give away. I just don’t have the energy or anywhere near the expendable income that takes to do it the way it needs to be done.

I also don’t have the energy to be diplomatic and care what people think of my opinions and thoughts, so I might end up making all my profiles private so I can be free to sound off without worrying about whether or not someone somewhere in the writing, editing, publishing community might get offended. Or I might just end up sounding off and The Powers That Be – be damned. I don’t know. I just know, I’m too tired to care anymore about that and if what I say offends you, then quit reading my blog or Facebook or following me on Twitter, and go find someone else who doesn’t offend you. I’m not going to change from far left liberal to your flavor of conservative anytime soon, so don’t even start the argument. You’re wasting your time.

In the meantime, if anyone out there is ever interested in checking out my books and purchasing them you can check them out at:
Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Raebob
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rachel-V.-Olivier/e/B007AUX6WM
Putt Putt Productions:

• Novellas
• Short Stories
• Poetry

‘Rae’s Bar & Bistro’ and ‘The Holly & the Ivan’ now out on ePub for Nook!

You can now download "The Holly & the Ivan" and "Rae's Bar & Bistro: A Poetry Collection," ePub to read on your Nook or iPad!

"The Holly & the Ivan" is available for $1.50 here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/rachel-olivier/the-holly-and-the-ivan/ebook/product-20497667.html.

"Rae's Bar & Bistro: A Poetry Collection" is available for $5.00 here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/rachel-olivier/raes-bar-bistro-a-poetry-collection/ebook/product-20497884.html.

The plan is to get them out on Kindle eventually, but it depends on ISBNs. Lulu and CreateSpace both offer free ISBNs to their authors and Kindle doesn't seem to be doing that. So, if I have to purchase an ISBN then the Kindle version will be a long while coming. We'll see. I have a question put into them. Hopefully, you'll see these on Kindle soon.

Enjoying the season

I love autumn. I love October. I love writing O-c-t-o-b-e-r - the loop of the Os like the "O" in Olivier, the "c" and the "e" and "b-e-r" that signals the start of school, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's one of my favoritist months ever.

September is the beginning - the run up to the fun holiday season. The temperature drops - not too much in L.A., but still enough to have an edge. The air takes on a different smell. Perfect time (not too hot) to go to a renaissance faire whilst dressed in costume.

Then October. Again - the loops - O-c-t-o-b-e-r. The very sound of the words brings to mind orange and black and brown. It's actually cool enough to wear the new clothes you bought in August and September at Fall sales - to consider the boots, have a little heavier hand on the makeup, be more dramatic. Halloween and spooky movies, crisp apples, orange pumpkins, acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash, and in some places Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations with all the pomp and circumstance.

After all the drama of October, it's easy think of autumn as over, completely pass over the rest of the dying season onto winter and Christmas (it's what many retailers would like us to do). But autumn will last for at least a month and a half more. November, though a harsher month with darker colors, still has its autumn gifts to give. Piles of brown leaves, cooling weather, rain and snow and wind. Weather! And of course a holiday all its own that reminds us to be thankful for friends, family, a roof over our heads and warm food in our tummies - if we can get it. Rich foods, nuts, meats, pies and wine. November - try writing that out. N-o-v-e-m-b-e-r - like a novena, a prayer, or a novice, a beginner. November is the beginning of the end of the year, and it is beautiful in the dying of the year's light.

And of course it leads right on up to the season of lights - to December - St. Nicholas' Day, Advent, Hanukkah, Christmas, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, New Years Eve, and all the celebrations of life and light in the middle of darkness and death.

The point is, each time of the season has its own reason to be enjoyed, to be celebrated, to be reveled in. Take the time to enjoy each part of the journey through the year.

And (now for a word from our sponsor) if you're looking for a little autumnal reading, might I suggest "Needs Must When the Devil Drives," the story of a woman who takes a few days off with her dog during the cool autumn days to figure out her life, only find out it's the end of the world. Or, try checking "UnCommon Faire: A Fiction Sideshow," my collection of previously published short stories.

And enjoy your autumn.