Today I'd like to welcome award winning author Carole P. Roman. Not only is Carole an author but she has many great resources out there for authors who would like some help navigating the indie world. I have stumbled upon lots of great tips from Carole on Goodreads. Make sure to follow her. Carole, tell us a little about yourself.
I wrote my first book when I
was in my twenties, a bodice ripper. For a year, I had an agent in Hollywood
who shopped the book with publishers. It was thrilling, even though the book
never sold. I published it with a vanity press and thought that was the end of
my writing career. Thirty years later, my son started publishing through
CreateSpace, first self-help, than fiction. Both my kids urged me to
write. We had a contest, I brought in Captain No Beard the next morning and
together we found the terrific Bonnie Lemaire to illustrate it. The book was
picked as one of Kirkus' Best for 2012. It sold well, and I turned it into a
series of ten books. I taught social studies forty years ago and used
that interest to do a non-fiction series celebrating customs and culture with
illustrator Kelsea Wierenga that grew into 22 award-winning and
bestselling book. I did a spin-off with other artists, that included
Mateya Arkova about history and at the urging of Bianca Schulz of The Children's
Book Review did an Early Reader Chapter series, called Oh Susannah. I have a
nursery series and coloring book that I did with Mateya, as well. I tried my
hand at adult fiction on Radish, under the name Brit Lunden- it's a paranormal
romance, and lastly co-wrote Navigating Indieworld with my friend and
colleague, Julia A. Gerber. Julie and I are in the process of wrapping up
Marketing Indieworld with Angela Hausman. I help moderate two threads on
Goodreads to help indie authors market and promote their books. I did so many
pod fire radio show with Storyteller's Campfire, they gave me my own,
called Let's Say hello to Our Neighbors, and I co-host a monthly radio show
with authors Julie A. Gerber and RL Jackson called, Navigating Indieworld. RL,
Julie, and I have founded a monthly online magazine, called Indie Author's
Monthly. I manage my son, who writes under the names Michael Okon, Michael
Phillip Cash, and Michael Samuels. I work full-time in a family business with
my sons, husband, and brother. Whew!
I don't know when you find the time to write! Wow. I know you have a lot of books published, will you share a short excerpt from a novel?
I will do two excerpts because my writing is so different.
© 2017 Carole
P. Roman
All rights
reserved.
The sun peeked
through the blinds, making a striped pattern across the bottom of Susannah Maya
Logan’s comforter on the bed. Susannah opened her eyes and counted five panels of
sunshine.
The little
brass alarm clock’s larger hand moved over the twelve, the shorter hand jerked to
the seven, and the tiny hammer started to hit the bell. The clock shook and trembled
as if it were dancing. Susannah reached over, depressing the button, silencing the
alarm.
Her door cracked
open. Mom was tucking her shirt into her skirt.
“Wake up, sleepyhead.”
She smiled.
Her mother
walked into the room, bent, and picked up the large red envelope that had been left
there after they had cleaned out her overstuffed schoolbag. “You never told me what
this was for.”
Susannah slid
out of bed, reaching for the invitation. Her mother opened it before she could grab
it. “You’re invited to a sleepover at the Simons’. That sounds like fun,” she said
cheerfully.
Susannah
watched her mother look up over the handwritten cardboard invitation to see her
troubled face. She turned it over, and Susannah could see Lola’s oversized letters.
“What’s wrong, honey? Didn’t we say we were going to share our problems, so they
don’t overwhelm us?”
Susannah thought
for a minute. Is this a problem? She wondered.
Not understanding homework was one thing; admitting that you thought a house was
haunted was quite another.
Mom handed
the invitation to Susannah.
“Sounds like
fun. It says here they want you to come home with Lola on Friday after school, and
we’ll pick you up Saturday morning.”
“Yeah.” Susannah
sighed with resignation. “Loads of fun.”
“Wait, Susannah.
Don’t you like Lola anymore? Do you not want to take her to the nail salon next
week on your birthday?”
Susannah was
turning eight next Thursday, and instead of a party, they had decided to have a
mother-daughter spa day to celebrate.
Susannah bit
her lower lip. She was a big girl now. How could she tell her mother she was afraid
to stay at Lola’s house?
“I love being
with Lola, and even her brother, Kai—not that I want him to go with us to the nail
salon. It’s just that—”
“Yes?” Mom
raised an eyebrow as she watched Susannah intently.
Susannah almost
wished Mom was busy with her own work, as she had been the day before her school
bag exploded. It was easier to ignore an issue when nobody was paying attention
to her.
“Did I hear
you’re going to a sleepover?” Her father popped his head into the room. He was fastening
his tie. “Well, that’s perfect. We have that dinner thing with Mr. Ort. We won’t
have to get a sitter.”
“Perfect!”
Mom agreed. “Janey’s busy and can’t watch Susie. I was going to have to call a babysitting
service.”
Susannah watched
Mom and Dad exchange a long look and wondered what that was all about.
Mom picked
up the new backpack and walked toward the door. “I’ll call Lakeisha Simon and let
her know you’ll be happy to sleep there on Friday.”
“Great,” Susannah
grumbled as she pulled out her jeans and got dressed. “That’s just great.”
Both Mom and
Dad decided to sit with Susannah for breakfast. Dad drank his coffee and ate toaster
pastries as if he had all the time in the world. Mom made both Susannah and herself
open-faced grilled-cheese sandwiches. Mom and Dad chatted about their big dinner,
while Susannah picked at her sandwich.
“I thought
you liked this better than oatmeal,” Mom said as she put an apple into Susannah’s
lunch bag. “No banana today!” she said with a huge grin, followed by a chuckle when
she remembered the time a banana had exploded in her bag. What a mess!
Susannah forced
a smile to her face. They were trying so hard. She remembered yesterday when she
had to fight to get their attention. Now it felt like she had too much!
© 2017 Carole P. Roman
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1 - Primordial Soup
“It’s like a primordial soup,” Clay Finnes
muttered his hands on his hips.
“A primordial what?” Owen Bishop raised his
hangdog face to look at the town sheriff.
“Primordial, ancient, prehistoric…” Clay
looked at the deputy’s blank face and finished with, “old...really, really
old.”
“Oh,” Owen shook his craggy head. His bulbous
eyes looked like two hard boiled eggs; his hair was matted as if was glued to
the top of his round head. Owen never passed any of the tests allowing him to
advance on the force. He was a deputy when Clay first got a job in Bulwark
right out of the army. As the promotions started coming, Clay eventually became
his boss. He wondered if it bothered the older man taking direction from
someone who trained under him.
“You mean like dinosaurs?” Owen scratched his
head.
“Dino... no... forget it, Owen. What else did
the couple say?” He listened to Owen drone on about the car that was now
sitting in the middle of the greenish pond.
“Appears they were coming from the other
side.” Owen pointed vaguely in the other direction.
“How could they? There’s nothing there. That
road has been closed off for years.”
Something was missing. He wasn’t sure what,
but a feeling of unease enveloped Clay until his body fairly vibrated with it.
Clay looked up, his deep brown eyes scanning
the thicket of trees surrounding the strange body of water that seemed to
appear overnight. He crinkled his nose; it smelled pretty bad too. It was a
greenish color, like a dirty army fatigue. It seemed shallow. He resisted the
urge to stick the toe of his boot in the water. It was still, the surface like
polished glass. The Ford Fusion was trapped in the what appeared to be the
deepest part of the puddle as if they had tried to speed through it. The
brackish water about two feet deep.
“If they had skirted the edges they would have
made it through. He shoulda used the choke, probably got an entire engine full
of water.” Once Owen started talking he could go on about something forever.
“Where the hell were they coming from?” Clay
muttered to himself. He moved away as if to see through the gloom. “It’s a road
that leads to nowhere.”
He took off his hat, wiping his sweaty
forehead with the back of his hand. It was hotter than usual. No breeze ruffled
the leafy trees or relieved the stifling humidity that made his shirt stick to
his back.
There was nothing, no sound, not the humming
of bees, or mosquitoes. Not a bird in sight or the croaking music of frogs in
the late afternoon. When he got home, he’d mention it to Jenna...his wandering
thoughts came to an abrupt halt. There would be no conversation. Jenna wasn’t
there anymore. His family’s old farm house only had one occupant now. His wife
had up and left him. He felt his chest tighten, his throat closing up. His
entire life changed and would never be the same. Losing Claire was just the
beginning of the end. After that had happened, it was as though they were stuck
in some nightmare and couldn’t get out.
“Well,” Owen continued, oblivious to his
boss’s distracted air. “The car hit the...um...water, at a high rate of speed,
I think. It must’ve started to sink.”
“It’s not deep enough to sink,” Clay observed
his deputy scratch his bald head, then turned to look at the enormous puddle.
It covered the road from one end to the other. He chewed the inside of his
cheek. He had to admit, it appeared larger than when he got here, but it
couldn’t be that deep, could it?” Clay forced his attention back to Owen. It
helped him stop thinking of his own life. “Where are they?”
“Over at JB’s house. The wives pretty freaked
out.”
“JB?” Clay liked the old football pro, had
shared quite a few stories with the old vet.
“Over what. The puddle?” The interruption was
from Dayna Dalton, a reporter from the Bulwark Advance. She was walking toward
them, a camera hung around her exposed neck, a spiral notebook clasped in the
other. “Think somebody dropped a load of waste here.”
Clay looked at her, his cheek twitched. Her
buttons strained to the point that she looked like her clothes had been painted
on her body. She shook her mane of red hair like an angry mare. He turned his
gaze away, knowing it annoyed her. No matter how much she pranced around in her
tight jeans, he wasn't interested. She didn’t do anything for him in high
school, and she didn’t do anything for him now. Somehow, it never stopped her
from trying to get him to notice her. Clay was tired of it. He sighed gustily.
She came around the back of the car, moving
into his personal space. For a minute, Clay thought about backing up, but damn
it all, he was the sheriff. He stood his ground, daydreaming of Dayna’s
reaction when he threw her into the stinky, green lake that had developed
overnight.
Dayna repeated her comment about someone
dropping waste. Clay shrugged indifferently, then turned to Owen, ignoring her.
He could feel her bristling but refused to
move. He dug his feet in the dark soil, his arms folded over his chest. “JB see
anything? Maybe notice something out of place?”
Owen shook his head. “Nope. Nada. I asked.
Been quiet. He said this started small. Says he has a few pictures on his
laptop he can send us.” Owen paused and then said, “Wait, he mentioned they had
a wolf problem lately.”
Clay looked at Owen sharply. “Wolves, there
haven’t been...hey!”
He saw Dayna take off,
her feet moving quickly toward a thicket of trees.
“Dayna!” Clay called,
who was dashing up a small incline toward JB Straton’s small cabin over the
ridge.
It looks like you write something for everyone. I am a little partial to the paranormal myself. Which
do you prefer when reading: print books or ebooks?
Print- all the way. There is nothing like holding a
book in your hands.
Carole, I know you've been at this for a while, have
you been given any helpful advice?
Get on a Goodreads thread and meet other authors.
You'll find out you are not alone. We all have the same issues. Read, review,
and repeat. Get to know what is selling, know what is hot and popular in your
genre. Aim your marketing to people who enjoy your genre.
Goodreads is a phenomenal tool. There are so many people out there willing to point you in the right direction if you just ask. If
you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go and why?
Vegas, baby! It's my happy place.
Vegas is a fun place to visit. I've just been once, there is no place like it. Currently,
what are you working on?
Right now, I have taken a break from writing and am
concentrating on marketing all our books.
Well with the magazine, and radio show, it's a wonder you find time to do anything else. How
do you decide on what to title each book?
My younger son, Eric picked all the names for our books. He has a gift. He says the title and the cover must tell the whole story.
My younger son, Eric picked all the names for our books. He has a gift. He says the title and the cover must tell the whole story.
That's great that you can pull your talents and help each other in this business. Share
something with us not a lot of people know about you.
I am an avid craps player. I love the game and when
we go to Vegas, that's the place to find me.
You are braver than me. I think if I ever started winning, I would keep going and eventually lose it all. How do you promote your books? Any tips you can share?
Got a few hours? There are two
ways to promote a book, with a budget and without. I could write a book about
it. Wait a second, I did. Everything I've done has been trial and error, some
with a budget, some without. One doesn't necessarily outweigh the other. I've
done expensive ads, and I've spent hours writing to reviewers on
Amazon or searching for blogs to be featured on. The best advice I can give an
author is getting to a good discussion group filled with proactive people and
listen to what they say.
Navigating Indieworld is chock full of tips from
putting out a polished product to finding reviewers. We even list them. Julie
and I discuss ways to utilize resources like the internet social media to
finding blogs to feature your book.
What is the easiest part of the writing
process? What is the hardest?
I love doing this, so it's all
easy. I don't like the formatting or editing. I love the challenge of
taking something unknown and building it into something. I get a thrill when
someone says, "Oh, I've heard about this book!"
I am getting a little better at formatting, and actually enjoyed it this go around, but editing is a whole different beast. I wish I could do my own, but that is a talent that escapes me. Do
you have people read your drafts before you publish? How do you
select beta readers?
I have several beta readers, three editors, and two
proofreaders. We still make mistakes. I do this for all our books. I feel as if
it is an investment in our product. The beauty of self-publishing is you can
pull it back and fix an error.
Who
designed the artwork for your cover? Or did you design it yourself?
My younger son designs all the covers on our books.
He is currently running the Facebook campaign for Monsterland, Michael's book.
What was your biggest challenge when writing? Did you
have any writer’s block? If so, how did you work your way through
it?
Never. There is always a story
going on. Sometimes, I've worked on two or three at the same time. I don't
get blocked so much as bored. I move to another story, then come back to the
first one when I finish.
Carole, what was your writing process like?
I can write anywhere, anytime, with the
television going, or the phone ringing. I am used to being interrupted.
When I work in my office, my brother, who is blind, will often speak to me, not
realizing that I am writing. I can have a conversation while I write. It's
weird.
II can do the tv or music, but having a conversation with someone while writing is beyond me. That's quite a gift. Is there something you learned from writing your first
book that you could share with us?
Yes! Don't be intimated. Ask
questions, that is the only way you'll learn. Take a chance, if something
fails, then you'll know to put your time and effort into the next idea. Don't
get stuck on something that isn't working- set a time limit and know you
have to move on after that set period doesn't yield your desired result. Set
realistic goals.
What
are your hobbies aside from writing, if any?
I do yoga
twice a week- It keeps me moving!
In
your novels, which character is your favorite?
Oh come on, that's like picking a favorite child.
Look at your hands. If you pinch for forefinger or your pinky, it feels the
same. That's how I feel about my projects.
LOL. What advice would you give someone who is considering
publishing? Should they consider traditional or self-publishing?
It's very hard to get a
traditional publisher. My son just signed a two-book deal with Wordfire, but
nobody would consider him without an agent. So, first you have to get an
agent, then he/she shops it around and if you are lucky you'll get picked up by
a publisher. Them the editing starts all over and it could take years before
your book is released. For me, I like the speed and freedom of indie
publishing. I don't have to edit to conform to what a publisher thinks will
sell a book. However, if you want to break through to Hollywood and get a
series or movie, you need a film agent and they usually prefer to work with
traditional publishers. I think you should start with being an indie, find your
audience, and perhaps an agent will find you and take your book into the stars!
Carole thanks so much for sharing with us today, it has been a pleasure! Find out more about Carole P. Roman and her novels below. Happy Reading!!
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