Barnes & Noble at noon
Another lovely time meeting book buyers that the downtown Minneapolis Barnes & Noble. As you can see from the photo there was plenty to talk about.
Bomb, bombs everywhere
My thanks to my rowing buddy Mary Butler Harpin who wrote this piece for MnArtists.org. She did a fine job weaving the fact of the Skeeter Hughes Mysteries in with a review.
An enjoyable evening
A free ebook to anyone who sets up a book club visit for me outside the Twin Cities via Skype or FaceTime
By Judith Yates Borger, who's offering free ebook to any book club that sets up a Skype or FaceTime visit.
A writer friend refuses to visit book clubs because, she says, they tend to drink too much wine and grill her about why her character has premarital sex. Well, actually, it only happened once but it put her off book clubs forever.
I, on the other hand, love to visit with book clubs. In my little intro I tell them that I have very thick skin after working on newspapers where a good day was when only two people called me up swearing. I invite their criticism as well as their praise. They have never failed to heap on both, and I have learned from each comment. In fact, I made some changes in my second book, Whose Hand? because of comments about my first book, Where's Billie?
I've also learned there are a few key questions book club members ask every time:
Q: What is your writing routine?
A: I'm highly productive between 10 and 10:15 in the morning. The rest is slogging through mud.
Q: Was your car really blown up as portrayed in Where's Billie?
A: Yes, I wouldn't let that research go to waste.
Q: Are any members of your family characters in the book?
A: Note to my children: NO.
Q: Are any of your characters real people?
A: Lots of characters are an amalgamation of people I know or have met.
Q: How long did it take you to write the book(s)?
A: Start to publishing for Where's Billie? took three agents and seven years. For Whose Hand? it was about two years. I'm getting speedier.
Q: Do you get paid more with ebooks or paper books?
A: This is a classic Minnesotan question. What they really want to know is am I getting rich but they're too nice to ask directly. The answer is I get 70 percent royalty on ebooks, because I self publish them. I get five percent on paper books — about 80 cents for a $16.95 traditionally published book. A reasonable follow up question here would be: Why in God's name do you work with a traditional publisher? But no one ever asks it.
Q: What is the husband in Where's Billie? doing? Fooling around? Out on assignment? Going through chemo? Then they often debate that point for up to 45 minutes.
A: Buy Whose Hand? and find out.
Three days ago I was asked: What will you be in five years?
A: Eligible for Medicare.
All of this is great, but my problem is I can't drive/fly/bus/take Amtrak many miles to visit book clubs. However, I'd really like to chat with readers from outside the Twin Cities. So ....
I'm offering free ebooks of either Where's Billie? or Whose Hand?—your choice—to any book club willing to set up a time for me to visit via Skype or FaceTime. Let's face it folks, the technology is there to reach out and touch someone face-to-face. Let's use it.
Email me at Judy@JudithYatesBorger.com to set up a date/time. I promise I'll be there. Go to my website, www.JudithYatesBorger.com, for descriptions of both books.
Reviewer calls Whose Hand? "a crackling good story"
Here's an excerpt from the Pierce County (WI) Herald:
"On the regional front, Minneapolis’ Judith Yates Borger does for newspaper lore what White Bear Lake author Julie Kramer does for Television News.
Borger’s new book, “Whose Hand?” (Nodin Press, $16.95 paper), finds her heroine Skeeter Hughes working for the Minneapolis Citizen. Skeeter explains how newspapering has drastically changed in the past few years:
@ti:“The folks at the top of the journalism food chain have been going through all kinds of contortions trying to stave off obsolescence. Hence, Thom (Skeeter’s boss) became a team leader instead of an editor, even though the bulk of his time is spent editing.
“The rest of his time he’s under tremendous pressure from managers above him and reporters below. Those on top want him to fill the paper every single day with interesting, informative stories that people will want to read. The people below him want to write those stories, but they usually want the time to do them well….That costs money the newspaper’s shareholders don’t have. To stanch the red ink, many papers have fired staff….some like our newspaper have filed for bankruptcy….”
@tl:So that’s the situation Skeeter finds herself in. She has to produce or get laid off.
But then a story drops in her lap. An old duffer named BJ tells her that last fall he was fishing in Lake Harriet when he reeled in a person’s hand.
Whose hand was it?
It’ll be Skeeter’s job to find out -- or lose her job.
Borger embellishes her story with all manner of local references: The Linden Hills neighborhood above Lake Harriet; Sebastian Joe’s wonderful ice cream parlor; and, of course, the local newspaper, The Citizen, which is obviously the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
But you don’t have to know much about Minneapolis to enjoy this crackling good story with a bizarre ending that will surprise the most jaded mystery reader.
Dave Wood is a past vice president of the National Book critics circle and former book review editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Call him at 715-426-9554.
Keillor be with me
The book signing at Common Good Books in St. Paul was a hoot. The reading was in Nina's Coffee Cafe, which is always chock full of writers and readers. It's located above the bookstore. Afterward I signed books at the desk Garrison Keillor during his earliest writing days in New York. Didn't feel any aura, but you never know.
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