Duma Key and Me

I recently attended the monthly luncheon of the Southwest Division of the Florida Writer’s Association (http://www.floridawriters.net/). As always, I enjoyed being a part of this group of interesting and diverse writers in all stages of the craft. Michelle Weston, author of A Prophesy Forgotten, (http://www.elysianchronicles.com/MBWeston.htm) gave a hilarious as well as informative talk based on her personal experiences of what to do and what not to do during a road trip for a book promotion. If you ever get I chance to hear her speak, don’t pass it up.

At this same meeting, Robert Gelinas, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, announced that ArcheBooks (http://archebooks.com/) would be releasing The Ride, as well as Henry Hermann’s novel, Beginnings, soon.

I’m not allowing myself to get too excited because I have come to understand that ‘soon’ is a relative term. However, all the books on the production list up to The Ride, have either been released or are in the very last stages prior to release, leading me to believe that the ‘birth’ of The Ride may actually happen.

While exciting and what I’ve been waiting almost a year for, the revelation stirred up all my anxieties about the marketing aspect of a writer’s life. So I haven’t figured out if it’s a coincidence or downright eerie that this week I also happened to be reading Stephen King’s latest book, Duma Key, and identified with something one of his characters said.

King’s character, Edger Freemantle says, “When I was painting I felt filled up and fully realized in some basic way I had never understood before coming to Duma Key. But when I thought about the show at the Scoto and all the stuff that went into making an exhibition of new work successful, my mind went into lockdown. It was more than stage fright; this felt like outright panic.”

If marketing can panic a Stephen King character, what chance do I have of remaining calm?

Obviously, I’d substitute ‘writing’ for ‘painting’ and there’s some comfort knowing that by replacing ‘painting’ with singing, acting, sculpting, or any creative endeavor many other people can probably also identify with Edgar Freemantle.

Still, I’m not sure if it is scarier to think about identifying with a Stephen King character or to think about marketing; I have a feeling they’ll both give me nightmares.

I hope to be able to announce the winner to the ‘when will The Ride be released’ contest soon. By ‘soon’ I mean my definition of the word, not a publisher’s .

Thanks for stopping by. See you next week.

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Florida Writers Association, Michelle Weston, A Prophesy Forgotten , Robert Gelinas, Stephen King, Duma Key, : Henry Hermann, Beginnings