New Review at Book-alicious Mama

disabilityhorizons.com

Woke up this morning to find a new review of Keowee Valley over at Book-alicious Mama, a fantastic--and fantastically thorough, interesting, and smart--book blog written by Jennifer Smeth. I'm a follower, because Jennifer blogs daily about great books, answering all the questions I tend to have when I'm looking for a new read. I'm in awe of the amount of time and effort she spends posting: she truly delves deeply into each book, getting at its unique center. She must have stacks of books waiting to be read!

It really does make me happy to know that people are still reading and enjoying Keowee Valley. To read the review, go here. And if you're looking for new reads, I highly recommend following her blog!

Keowee Valley the Amazon Daily Deal - TODAY only $1.99

Hi, all!

Happiest of Fridays to you all! After 11 days in Vermont in sub-Artic temperatures, 3 plane trips and delayed luggage, I'm finally back home with my family. Happiness!

More on my time at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA in Writing program soon, but for now:

Keowee Valley is the Daily Deal today at Amazon, only $1.99!

I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd share with your friends and fans of historical adventure, on any social media sites you frequent. I'd love to introduce Quinn and Jack, and the Revolutionary-era Southern frontier, to new readers!

Keowee Valley Reviewed at The Huffington Post

Keowee Valley has just been reviewed at The Huffington Post’s Huff Post Books, by writer/chef John Malik!

Check it out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-malik/keowee-valley-book_b_2487011.html

I’m thrilled! And I’m using lots of exclamation points!

* * *

In other news, my interview at Blog Talk Radio’s “Away With Words” is now up and can be heard online. I had a great time chatting with hosts Victoria and Jill about everything from the inspiration behind Keowee Valley, to the ins and outs of its main characters (Quincy and Jack), the setting (the gorgeous Southern Appalachian mountains during the dangerous Revolutionary era), literary agents and publishing, the writing life, and even winter weather.

Enjoy! (My interview is the first 40 minutes.)

Let There be Cake (and a New Review)

* Also posted at my author website.

With Rachael, creator of the Perfect Cake

It was a busy book weekend!

We kicked off Friday night with a Book Launch Party for Keowee Valley, thrown by my wonderful parents in my hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Saturday I headed back up to the mountains of Sylva, North Carolina, for a reading and book signing at the fabulous City Lights Bookstore.

** More on each of these events to come in a later post!

But for now, here’s a new review of Keowee Valley by reviewer Michelle Griep, up at the blog Novel Reviews.


I’ll leave you with a few photos of the utterly incredible cake my friend and the artist/baker Rachael Doss Muldrow created for the launch party Friday night. Made of chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and buttercream icing, the cake was a recreation of the cover of Keowee Valley, and quotes from the novel were iced around the sides.

 

And it tasted as GOOD as it looked!

 

 

A Moveable Feast

* This content was also posted at my author web site.

I’ve just returned from a fabulous visit to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, where I was the featured author at Litchfield Books’s Moveable Feast.

Oh, Pawleys Island. Oh, wonderful readers. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I’ll do that in a minute.

But for now, here’s the play-by-play of the event.

Moveable Feast is a joint project of Litchfield Books, an independent bookstore, and area restaurants. Every Friday, a different author appears at a different restaurant. Participants pay the price of the ticket, which covers the lunch, the author’s presentation, and a discount off the price of the novel. Featured authors in the past have included writers like Pat Conroy, Nora Roberts, Mary Alice Monroe, Ron Rash, Elizabeth Gilbert, and more.

I’m the luckiest of authors, for two reasons.

1.) October is a gorgeous month to be on the South Carolina coast. Daytime temperatures drop to the low 70s and upper 60s, the influx of summer traffic thins, and the humidity disappears. Sunrises and sunsets over the ocean are crystal clear, awe-inducing, and dusk is a silver-purple dream.

2.) My event was hosted and catered by the famous Sea View Inn, known for its delicious food, island hospitality and incredible view. I know, without a doubt, that there were many attendees who showed up just because of the venue. And I think that’s great!

I grew up spending summer vacations on the South Carolina coast, at nearby Garden City Beach. Pawleys Island has always been a special spot for my family—my father grew up spending summer vacations there, and sometimes his parents would rent an old beach house (the oldest houses on the island were built in the 1700s) for the entire summer. His mother, his siblings and he would live the 1950s island life while his dad drove down from Columbia (the state capital) when he was done with work on the weekends.

So I have a host of stories in my head about the place, including all the ghost stories my dad told us—"Alice’s Grave," "The Gray Man," and more. Most South Carolina kids grow up--or used to--knowing these stories, but actually being in the place where they happened? And trying on your mother's engagement ring while walking backwards around Alice's grave 14 times, to see if it disappears? Priceless. And a whole other story.

Back in August, my parent rented a wonderful 1920s oceanfront house on Pawleys, and they, my sister and her husband, my family, and all our dogs spent an idyllic week wandering the shore, finding starfish and baby stingrays in tidal pools, biking around the island, and sitting on the screened-in porch that faced the sea, drinking adult beverages and rocking in old rocking chairs.

Ahh, summer. Where was I?

Oh, yes. Friday. Moveable Feast. And my very first author event for Keowee Valley!

So, suffice it to say, it was an utter treat to return to a place that I love. I arrived early, parked my car in the sand-shelled lot—it was already packed— and hiked up the wooden steps and into the Inn. A lovely fire was burning in the fireplace in the main room, and the smell of woodsmoke and the view through the windows out onto the huge front porch, over the dunes and into the ocean had me grinning in delight. It was a gorgeous, sunny, cloudless day.

There was a small table set up in the corner of the room, where the Litchfield Books manager was selling copies of Keowee Valley and Michael Morris’s Man in the Blue Moon (Morris is on tap to be the next featured author at Moveable Feast).  Here’s a shot of me in that lovely, light-filled room, reading over my presentation one last time.

My mother and a dear friend, Gayle, were also in attendance. It was such fun to have them there: both took photos, and every time I passed Gayle she was talking up Keowee Valley to somebody. It always helps to have back up. Especially when that back up is completely supportive and in no way unbiased.

The innkeeper showed me around the dining room, which was set up with pretty place settings and flowers, and tables ready for the 60+ readers in attendance. Then, after we were all seated, she introduced me with a flourish, and I was on.

I talked about many things, but mostly told the crowd a little bit about myself, about the inspirations behind Keowee Valley, and about my writing life. What a wonderful audience they were! Attentive, bright-eyed, smart and inquisitive, they even laughed at my jokes. I thoroughly enjoyed taking their questions at the end, especially. I just love to talk books.

Talking Keowee Valley, microphone in hand



Then, the lunch. Oh, the lunch. Sea View Inn fried chicken, squash casserole, potato salad, sweet rolls, peach cobbler. How do I love thee?

Kidding. But that meal was to-die-for. My mother, who probably has a tinier waist now than she did in high school, had to keep herself from audibly groaning with happiness. (She loves fried chicken.)

A lovely reader with several books in arm

 

I have to say, though, that my absolute favorite part of the event was meeting readers—folks who’d already read Keowee Valley, and those who bought the book there. (Actually, Litchfield Books sold out of the novel at the event and at their store. I can only imagine that this is a good thing.)

I just love people in general, especially readers. They used to call my paternal granddaddy “Speaker,” because he couldn’t walk down the street without talking to everyone he knew or didn’t, and I think I may be the same way. I also used to be a reporter, and I could hold a conversation with a brick wall. Who knows what stories it has to tell? (Not sure what that says about me, or the wall, but it's true.)

Signing books

 

Those folks at Moveable Feast were a joy. I loved hearing their stories, answering questions, and just talking about history and literature and the people and places we had in common. I hope they’ll keep in touch.

Happy readers, happy author!

 

 

 

Signing books in front of the Inn's beautiful fireplace
(by the way, I firmly believe that cowboy boots are a necessary aspect of any social occasion)

 

Meanwhile, as my mom, Gayle and I were enjoying good food and good, booky fellowship at the Sea View Inn, my dad and Gayle’s husband, Willie, were on granddaddy duty. They took my 3 year-old daughter to the beach to build sandcastles, to the condo pool, to Quigley’s Pub for nachos and quesadillas, and to Walgreen’s for a giant bag of lollipops. Wylie was returned to me with a host of stories about her day and a mouthful of bright blue lollipop.

 

My beach girl

 

A good time was most definitely had by all.

All in all, the whole thing was a roaring success—and a fantastic way to kick off the next couple of months of book events for Keowee Valley.

Thanks so much to all the folks at Litchfield Books, the Sea View Inn, and to those wonderful readers who came out to hear this first-time author. I do hope we meet again!

 

* Next up:

On Tuesday, I give a presentation in Brevard, North Carolina, at the Transylvania County Library’s Bag Lunch Arts Series. It’s called “The Slanted Truth: When Fiction Meets History,” and I’m going to discuss my life as a historical novelist, what draws me to historical fiction and my own research process, and even the ethics of writing within the genre. Highland Books, Brevard’s independent bookstore (and a favorite haunt of mine), will be selling Keowee Valley there after the talk. If you’re in the area, please join us! And if you’re not, look for a blog post re-cap at the end of the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Publication Date for Keowee Valley

Hi, all!

Just got word from my publishers that the new, official publication date for Keowee Valley is September 27. In addition, pre-orders will be available within the next two weeks at places like Amazon.com, etc. So exciting!

More from me soon when things calm down about the tail end of the publication journey. For now, I'm wallowing in my last night at the beach with family and friends.

Blurbs and Quotes for a First Novel: Or, It's Not All Greek To Me

I'd thought, after my novel was sold and the fairy dust cleared and settled, that the process of finding authors to read my work and offer a blurb or quote I could use to promote the work would be a bit like attempting to get into a sorority.

I don't know how it's done elsewhere, but in the South when a sweet girl goes off to the big university and decides (or others decide for her) that she'd like to be in a sorority, friends of the family who are alums will often write letters for said girl. They send them to the powers-that-be in that sorority, encouraging the powers to take a good, hard look at the girl: that she'd be perfect for their group. (I always imagined perky 21 year-old college seniors sitting around a pink office with Greek letters embroidered on everything--the stationary, the backs of chairs, cross-stitched and hung in pink frames on the walls. But that's not fair, because really, those girls could easily be sitting in a pub having beers, a stack of letters on the table before them.) The point is: I thought it'd be harder than it really is.

The fact is, authors have to work more diligently than ever to promote their own work. The times they are a changin'. So while I've utilized my literary agent and my editor when seeking those quotes and blurbs, I'm doing the bulk of it myself. And what I've found is that most writers are incredibly generous, willing to take the time to help out a first-timer in need. That's not only awesome, it's a relief.

I haven't followed any format. I simply made a list of my favorite authors, whether or not I thought I'd have a chance of getting a quote or blurb from them. I concentrate on (but don't limit myself to) historical fiction authors, because that's the genre of my novel. And then I do my research--entirely online as it turns out--learning the best ways to contact them. Some are easier to reach than others: they've got direct email addresses on their websites. Others insist you go through their literary agents or publishers, and yet others have online forms you can fill out (these concern me the most, for some wierd reason... because I wonder where that information is actually ending up). I also look into their places of business, especially those who also teach for a living, and find email addresses that way.

When writing to these folks, I write from my heart. I give the necessary information--my name, my novel title, my writing background, my publisher/editor's info, the publication date, etc--but I also let them know how much I admire their work. That is, of course, the reason I choose them: I love their stuff. I'm not afraid to admit that I fawn (and yes, it is fawning when you're openly praising a writer whose work you've loved for years), and I'm honest about it. Email is tough: so much meaning can be misconstrued. It's important to be straight-forward. Be yourself. This is my theory.

Authors who offer direct email addresses, I've found, respond the quickest. And they'll tell you, right away and often with regret, that they simply don't have the time to devote to reading your novel. Others will write back immediately, surprising you, and agree. They give a mailing address, I pop a Special Format Review copy of my novel in a big, manilla envelope with a handwritten "thank you" note (because, good Lord am I thankful!), and off it goes.

The worst case scenario is that the author just doesn't respond. But persistence (in every aspect of life, whether you're learning to cook creamy grits, garden successfully, or trying to potty train your dog or your daughter) is key. I'd attempted to contact one of my favorite best-selling historical novelists in every way I could find--via her online form, through Goodreads, through Facebook, through her publisher--but hadn't had any luck. I decided I'd send her one more quick, private Facebook message, and that would be it. By the next day she'd sent me a direct email, apologizing for taking so long at getting back to me, and offering to read my novel. She was honest: She couldn't promise a blurb, but she'd read it.

And that's all any first-time author can ask for. It's a review copy, so it hasn't been edited yet. More than that, I know that my novel won't be every person's "cup of tea." And that's okay.

So far, I've had two wonderful writers read my novel and offer blurbs. One, Darci Hannah (author of The Exile of Sara Stevenson and The Angel of Blythe Hall, two novels I love) I emailed directly using an address she offers on her web site. Another, Philip Lee Williams (a prolific writer in several genres, and the author of The Flower Seeker, The Campfire Boys, etc) I met through a fan letter, me to him. I'd read an essay he'd written about the place where my novel is set, and the essay affected me so deeply I just had to write him. We began a correspondence, and I asked if he'd read my novel. Both of these authors not only agreed, they were gracious, generous, and kind, and I'll be forever thankful for their praise.

I've got other authors currently reading my novel, and it's difficult not to worry on that: to hope like all heck they'll like the story I tried to tell. Some of them will, and some of them won't.

But I'm finding, more and more, that writers are--overwhelmingly--an interesting, generous, quirky, wonderful bunch. When you're a writer, your daily life can be quite solitary. You sit at your desk, staring at a computer screen (or a legal pad, if you're old-school), and you invoke the mystery. You pray for it to visit its magic upon you. You work by yourself, because no one can do it but you. It's easy to forget that you're part of a community--that you can be, if you want to be. You've just got to reach out.

I'm big on tribes. My tribe of friends, especially, is comprised of the coolest cats I know. But it's nice to know that I may just be joining another tribe soon, a tribe of authors I already admire. And as long as the hazing doesn't include zit cream, funneling really bad beer, or eating mystery food while blindfolded, I am all in.

Wilderness House Literary Review

An excerpt from my historical novel, KEOWEE, has been published in Wilderness House Literary Review, #5/4. You'll find it when you click the link below, under "Fragments of novels looking for homes (publishers)."

http://www.whlreview.com/ (For the entire issue.)
http://www.whlreview.com/no-5.4/fiction/KSCrawford.pdf (For my excerpt alone.)

It's the first time an excerpt from my novel--which my agent is still pitching to publishers--has appeared in a literary journal.

Hope you enjoy. And a very Happy New Year to all!

Katie