Guest Author: Pat Browning

Author Pat Browning is stopping by Straight From Hel today to talk about piles of paper and timelines. She knows a lot about both. She's an ex-teacher, ex-reporter, ex-travel writer and current author.

In the 1990s, Browning signed on fulltime as a newspaper reporter and columnist, first at The Selma Enterprise and then at The Hanford Sentinel. While at the Enterprise, her lifestyle coverage placed first two years in a row in the California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest. She was also a finalist for the 1993 George F. Gruner Award for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism. At the Sentinel, her feature story on the Japanese-American "Yankee Samurais" of World War II, placed second in the CNPA contest.

Now, she pens the Penny Mackenzie mystery series. The first book, FULL CIRCLE, came out in 2001. Last month, it was re-released as ABSINTHE OF MALICE. While working on the next in the series, she writes non-fiction articles for The SouthWest Sage, the monthly journal of Southwest Writers. In addition, her memoir, WHITE PETUNIAS, will appear this winter in the Red Dirt Book Festival Anthology -- Oklahoma Character.

In her blog, Morning's at Noon, Pat talks about writing, her books, marketing, and her life. She also contributes to a co-op blog called Murderous Musings. You can read the first three chapters of ABSINTHE OF MALICE at her website: www.authorsden.com/patbrowning. Order the book through any bookstore, or buy at www.amazon.com, www.bn.com, or www.krillpress.com (free shipping).

I know Pat will be open to questions about her work as a reporter, travel writer, and author. She'll especially be ready to answer any questions about keeping up with all your piles of paper and what she went through to get FULL CIRCLE re-released.

Welcome, Pat Browning.

“This incredible pile of paper”

The piece of advice I got most often when I decided to write a mystery was “Don’t give up your day job.” To that I would add, “Never throw away anything.”

ITEM: March 2007

Reuters report in the Gulf Times Newspaper:

AMSTERDAM: An 89-year-old Dutch novelist has stumbled on a pot-boiler she wrote that had been lost for decades, and plans to publish it later this year. Hella Haasse’s Sterrenjacht (Hunt for the Stars) was published as a serial in a newspaper in 1950, but the manuscript was lost. However, Haasse, often called the “grand old lady of Dutch literature”, cut out and kept all the installments.

“I have this incredible pile of paper at home – and by chance I came across a stack of yellowed newspaper,” she told yesterday’s edition of the newspaper De Stentor. She showed the work to her editor as a joke, but the company decided to publish it.

ITEM: Dec. 5, 2008

From the New York Times top 20 sellers in Paperback Mass-Market Fiction
Of the 20 top titles, three are reissues:

THE MANNING GROOMS, by Debbie Macomber. (Mira, $7.99.) A reissue of two novels: “Bride on the Loose” and “Same Time, Next Year.”

FOUL PLAY, by Janet Evanovich. (Harper, $7.99.) A veterinarian hires a woman who has lost her TV job to a dancing chicken, then helps her prove her innocence when the chicken disappears; a reissue of a 1989 book.

LOVE BY DESIGN, by Nora Roberts. (Silhouette, $7.99.) A reissue of two novels from 1989: “Loving Jack” and “Best Laid Plans.”

ITEM: December 2008

FULL CIRCLE by Pat Browning, revised and reissued by Krill Press as ABSINTHE OF MALICE.

That came out of the blue. It was a three-month ride on a Tilt-A-Whirl, and I’m still dizzy. Krill Press is a small, start-up micropress in Oregon, with a multi-tasking publisher who puts the pedal to the metal. As in:

SEPT. 1 -- Krill Press was formed, more or less in the mind of said publisher, after the idea was kicked around in an Internet group we both belong to.

First bump in the road: He asked for a Synopsis of FULL CIRCLE, which I self-published in 2001, and also one for my half-finished second book, working title SOLSTICE. I started to sweat out that horror of horrors, the synopsis, for not one but two books.

SEPT. 6 -- Publisher said forget the synopses. He was reading FULL CIRCLE and liked it. He had already read the first three chapters of SOLSTICE on my web site.

SEPT. 14 -- Publisher loved FULL CIRCLE, suggested bringing out an “updated, refreshed 2nd edition” with a new title and new cover. Offered me an advance.

I fell over laughing when I read the proposed new title, ABSINTHE OF MALICE, and saw the jazzy, sexy new cover proposed. But the more I thought about it, the better I liked it. We jumped right into proposed changes and details of a business relationship.

SEPT. 17 – We signed a two-year contract for publication in trade paperback, E-book and other electronic download formats, and Amazon’s Kindle.

SEPT. 24 – Advance check. I printed out a copy suitable for framing.

Second bump in the road: Publisher wanted manuscript by E-mail, in Word. I couldn’t find my computer file anywhere. I did have a printout of my iUniverse proof sheet from 2001. Nothing to do but make a new Word file by scanning in that proof sheet, one page at a time. More than 200 pages, one – page – at – a – time.

OCT. 26 – Publisher finished book block and e-mailed it to me for proofing. Last minute updating of cover blurbs and reviews for Krill Press web site, which was still under construction.

NOV. 3 – Book uploaded to printer (Lightning Source). Publisher signed contracts with Lightning Source and Ingram Book Group to have book distributed in Canada, the UK and Europe.

NOV. 6 – Lightning Source sent proof copy to publisher via UPS 2 nd Day Air. Publisher made plans for virtual launch party on NETDRAG podcast.

NOV. 7 – Pursuant to my notice of cancellation of contract, iUniverse gave me written acknowledgment and washed their hands of it. It’s no longer listed on their web site.

Ongoing blip: FULL CIRCLE is still listed for sale by online booksellers and will be until they get rid of their last copy. If I could afford it, I would buy them all up.

DEC. 4 – I had copies of my brand new book on hand for a book signing at the local library.

Krill Press is promoting ABSINTHE OF MALICE in every known market. It’s displayed on Google Books, as far afield as an Italian library. Amazon.com has it displayed for sale in the UK, Germany, France, China, Japan … It’s print-on-demand but the publisher, bowing to marketplace realities, offers a heavy discount to bookstores and makes it returnable. He’s sending sell sheets and queries to Internet book review sites.

The publisher is doing his share and then some. I’m more of a hand-seller: “Pssst! Wanna buy a good book?”

It’s an ill wind, as the saying goes. Having to scan the book a page at a time gave me a chance to polish it up, tighten it up, and generally shape it up. It also gave me a chance to rewrite a couple of key scenes.

One has to do with my protagonist, Penny Mackenzie, a baby boomer whose first love shows up after a long absence. I had written her as a bit of a schlump, in a rut. The publisher picked up on a short scene where she whacks off her hair and throws her dowdy duds into a wastebasket. He took it a step further, seeing her as a woman whose long-suppressed vanity reappears when her old flame shows up. I rewrote the scene to fit the sassy, sexy new book cover.

The other has to do with DNA testing of an old bone. When I wrote the book in 1999-2001, DNA testing was fairly new. I misinterpreted a news article I read about a portable DNA machine developed by the military for battlefield use. Since then, of course, I’ve learned that DNA from old bones is mitochondrial DNA, passed down only through female ancestors. The test destroys the bone, making it impossible for a character to run it through a portable machine and then replace it in the police department’s evidence room. I feel a lot better for having rewritten the scene to reflect the differences in DNA, keeping a character from subjecting an old bone to the wrong kind of testing.

While all this was going on, my work-in-progress was shoved to one side. Now I’m picking up where I left off four months ago. Touching base this week with a friend, I mentioned that finishing the second book is essential to the success of the first one. His e-mail reply is taped to my computer monitor.

He wrote: “And if I were you I'd finish that second book. There's only so much promotion you can do without turning into a used-car salesman, and there's hardly anything worse than a used-car salesman who only has one car to sell.”

Words to live by!

Thank you Pat.

Be sure you visit the Comments Section here on Straight From Hel. You can ask Pat questions or just let her know you came by. Pat and I will both be around all day.