Writing Group

I realized after publishing my first book that having a group of people outside of my students and family to review my book would be helpful. So I started a writing group here in Boston. While it took a few months to get things going, we now have 11 members. At the last meeting, Scribe Ori (we are called scribes in my group) made the observation that I use way too many adverbs and not enough strong verbs. This was excellent feedback, and I went back through the first eight chapters and replaced my action words. I also got some great ideas for the twists and turns the story will take. I'm very excited about this new group!

Letter from a Student

When I set out to do this blog, I wanted to post letters from students whose classrooms I had visited. But then I could not find the stack of them. I for some reason filed them with my bill stubs. As I try avoiding looking there as much as possible, it is not surprising that I could not find them. But low and behold, I found them today. So here is one of my favorite letters form a classroom visit I did in May.

Dear Ms. Ramsay,
Thank you for coming to our class. Everybody in my class liked the book "Turtle Soup and Tiramisu." I have one question, would you put my name in one of the books you are writing? I'm not trying to be greedy but I'd like to be in the book. Also, I was the one wearing the gray sweatshirt sitting in the front right. I also want to read your new books that are coming oot.

Sincerely,
Kyle P.

I love a kid with chutzpah, so I totally named a character after him in "The Fairy Hollow."

Crash Course in Marketing

When ever people ask me about promoting my book, I always tell them it's been a crash course in marketing. This was again true this weekend at the book signing. I needed way more signs at my table. People had no idea what I was selling, and when they did walk over, they thought I was selling a cookbook. And when they went to buy it, they were surprised at how inexpensive it is. So next time, I am going to have signs, pirate paraphenilia (sp?) and possibly some set pieces from my launch party just to make it more appealing and interesting. I will say, the people watching at the farmers market made the time go by so fast! In bookstores, I usually just stare at a wall of books.

Book Signing this Saturday!

I will be doing a signing this Saturday at the Waltham Farmer's Market from 9:30am to Noon. The market is located at the corner of Main and Moody. It will be interesting to see how many books I sell as this is the first event where I didn't do some sort of classroom visit or other event before hand. Wish me luck!

I have officially completed the first 7 chapters of "The Fairy Hollow." That means I am a third of the way done with it. Hopefully, I can say it is half done by the end of July.

Fairies and Such

If you are reading this blog, you probably already read Turtle Soup, but I just want to let you know that the printed copy is temporarily unavailable for 48 hours. I'm reading the entire thing to a group of Pre-K kids (I think the book is a little too old for them, but the teacher insisted since they did a lot of author studies this year, and it was just way too exciting to have the actual author in the classroom to read the book to them.) I discovered some major typos that even my team of outstanding copy editors did not pick up on- the biggest one being that there are 2 chapter 11's, 2 chapter 15's, and no chapter 16. Even my mom who has the eyes of a hawk did not notice it, so I'm hoping not too many other people did either. I could pretend it didn't know about it, but as I know I have young aspiring writers reading my blog, I want to tell them about my mistakes as well as my triumphs. Writing is a never ending learning process, just like life!

I'm really making a lot of progress on book #2, which is tentatively called "The Fairy Hallow." This will most likely change, but I have to call it something! I'm learning some really great facts about fairies and changelings:

1) Changelings are actually a type of fairy.
2) If you cut a changelings hair, it will grow back in a day.
3) In the Catholic tradition, they believe that fairies were once angels who refused to take sides in the battle between God and Lucifer. They were banished to earth for their indecision- some to the ocean (mermaids), some to the barren countryside (leprechauns), and others underground (goblins and trolls). (Raised a Catholic, I found this one to be the most interesting. I'm pretty sure this was a compromise the priests made with the Irish. From all the stuff I've read recently, it is apparent that there was no way you were going to convince the Irish of yore that fairies weren't real, no matter how much you told them they were going to be damned for it.)

Enjoy this beautiful weather!

-AER

On Sale at B&N!

I finally made my book available for the Nook, and as I went to copy the link, I realized they are also selling my book on bn.com! I had no idea.

This week I have my first meeting with my new writing group. I realized I need a whole team of people editing and reading, especially since I don't have my focus group aka my students to read to over the summer. It will be interesting to see what other writers think of the new book. As soon as the first few chapters are really polished, I will be posting them on here. Stay tuned.

Kindle Edition Now Available

A few members of my family converted to the Kindle a year or two ago. As I absolutely love browsing libraries and book stores, I was very against this idea. I also like to look at how much I've read/how much I have left in a book. But my book club selected a book, Caleb's Crossing, that is new and only available in hard cover, and there is a huge waiting list for it at the library. So, I decided to borrow my mother's Kindle to read it, and to be quite honest, I'm hooked. I was dragging my feet about getting the Kindle version of my book live, but after reading a book on the Kindle, I decided to go ahead and do it. Plus, I'm starting to see more kids walking around with them.

It only took 2 months, but the Kindle edition is finally available on Amazon.com.

I also highly recommend Caleb's Crossing!

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Different friends and family have been kind enough to celebrate the launch of my book with me, and each time we've had tiramisu in some form. I am becoming quite the connoisseur of this Italian dessert. For the book launch party, my mom made these cupcakes, which come from Martha Stewart. They got rave reviews!

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar
Coffee-Marsala Syrup
Mascarpone Frosting
Unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.

Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

To finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat until all syrup has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes; refrigerate up to overnight in airtight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

Q&A with an aspiring author.....

My friend and I are both teachers and we share a student named Bianca. She came to my book signing and had a bunch of questions for me, but as there were a lot of people there, she did not get to talk to me much. She gave my friend a letter asking a whole bunch of questions. I'm so glad she did!

1) How long did it take you to write the book?
It took me about 1 1/2 years to write the book. If I was more disciplined and wrote everyday, I would have finished it much faster.

2) How long did take to edit and revise the book?
I spent about another year editing, and having other people read and give me notes.

3) Who is your publisher?
I published it through CreateSpace, which is Amazon's publishing house. It is free to publish with them!

4) What is the name of the writing formatter you use?
I use a program called Scrivener, which you can buy online.

5) Did you handwrite it before you typed it?
Yes! I carried a notebook with me everywhere I went. When I was waiting for appointments or waiting anywhere (I even bring my notebook to dance competitions!) I would write more!

6) What publishers did you send it to?
I did not send it to any publishers because in the book industry, you typically have to have an agent represent you. The agent then sends it to publishers. I have an agent, but I have no idea where they sent it!

7) How many people did you show it to before you sent it out?
I come from a family of writers and scholars so I had them all read it. I also read it aloud to my students. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to read your work out loud. It really makes you realize when your sentences sound funky.

8) Should I fix the grammar mistakes in my friend's work?
Yes! You may find this hard to believe, but I make HORRIBLE grammar mistakes. I used to be good at grammar, but constantly texting and emailing has ruined my grammar skills. I heavily rely on other people to fix my mistakes- especially my mom. She went to boarding school in a convent in Ireland so she knows her grammar pretty well :)

The book in a turtle shell so far...

I've had three signings so far, and I've learned that the weather makes a big difference in your turnout. If it is a beautiful day, people don't wander into book stores. If it is kind of dreary out, people do. I don't think I would publish in the spring again, but you live and you learn. I am, however, counteracting this problem this summer by doing a book signing at a farmer's market, where the nice weather will work in my favor. I am partnering with the Waltham Farmer's Market to get local authors to do signings every week. I have tentatively booked three other Waltham area authors so far. More details to follow......

I am also hoping to gain more speed selling my book nationally by reaching out to other bloggers to review my book. I'm learning this is a big marketing strategy for authors. I'm also learning that these blogs have a limit on how many samples they will take. It made me realize I've been doing my cooking blog all wrong. My friend Jeremy writes a snack blog, and people send him snack samples from all over the world. I want people to send me food and cook books to sample. I will review them at Chefnan.

Welcome to Turtle Soup and Tiramisu Online!

I originally had linked my cooking blog chefnan.blogspot.com to my author page, but then realized as I gain more and more young fans, they probably don't want to read about how used my farm share this week, or what is going on in my social life. That blog still exists of course, but this one is going to focus mainly on A.E. Ramsay, the writer.