J. Carter Merwin's Blog: The Tales of Earden

Over the course of the last year and a half, (and I guess Covid made it possible) i have drawn over 120 pen and ink illustrations to go with the text of all five books. It's something I've always wanted to do. When you write and create art you move back and forth in both worlds and I've always had images in my mind exactly like a movie playing in my head. A lot of authors have this and I'm please to see so many works of fiction, especially fantasy embrace illustrations, Neil Gaiman being a recent one. Probably Harry Potter got us going but I'm glad of it!The Swan and Arrow

Jenny, the young woman who works on Sundays at the general store next to our house paid me the most wonderful compliment today! She bought my first book, The Swan and Arrow and absolutely loved it!She was distressed because she wanted more and relieved to find out the next 3 are 'out' already...of course I thanked her profusely for the encouragement, for that is exactly what it is.
For all you readers out there, it is so hard being an indie author, the struggle for recognition and readership is hard, takes years and is all on your own shoulders...sometimes just one person's kind words can be like water to a flower in the desert.
And to all you struggling authors out there...
you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Woo hoo! Best birthday gift I EVER EVER had!

I'm currently reading The American Agent by Jaqueline Winspear and I have a bone to pick with who ever edited her work. Now this is a very popular writer...and very successful I assume, here's the problem with that. When authors make the publishers a lot of money it seems like they're given a little slack...'We don't have to worry about making sure every little spelling mistake or boo boo is fixed, this author can be trusted.' or more cynically , 'The book will sell anyway.'
Sorry, that doesn't cut it with me and I've seen this before with other popular titles.
I was only a few pages into this WWII mystery when I found a reference to the "Bore War"! The Bore War? A war against boring people? PLEASE give me a break. This typo should have been caught. Either Ms. Winspear is too young or too historically ignorant, which I do not believe for one moment since she has taken the time to do quite a lot of research into wartime Britain or, as is more likely the case, who ever the Gen X, Gen Y etc. copy editor was, they hadn't a clue what or how to spell the 'Boer War'. It bugged me and I'm sure I'm not alone.

I'm looking forward to a little segment on the Facebook group "I'm Not Obsessed, I Just Love to Read" happening either Wednesday the 12th or Thursday the 13th. I'll get to introduce myself and answer questions about writing, The Tales of Earden, self-publishing..I love this group, so many fabulous bookworms and a truly world-wide crowd.

I got way ahead of myself and so excitedly sent proofs of my latest "The Seer" to two loyal friends to read for boo boos...then I started in on my own copy...UGH! So many plot holes to correct and little mistakes. I re-proofed and will tell them to burn the first one! Something about your own children...you don't see the warts. Anyway, I have lots of time before I commit to publish. I'm planning on November in time for the hols. By then it should be polished and shiny.

Currently my favorite character is a princess with a lot of personality problems, not giving too much away here plot-wise but there is a recipe of her father's I'd like to share with anyone who is interested in a natural, easy to make romantic 'performance enhancer'. If you have a powerful juicer you can make this drink and it's guaranteed to get the all important blood vessels pumping, if you know what I mean. Fresh raw beets and watermelon both contain active ingredients that increase blood flow and if you whiz them together
( really fine so you have a sweet and earthy drink ) you will be pleasantly rewarded. Trust me! Of course, in Earden they probably had to pound these 'up-lifting' ingredients with a mortar and pestle or maybe I would have had monks do it...anyway...
use like half a mini-watermelon and 2 medium beets, if it's too thick you can add a little water, keep refrigerated.

Last Saturday I went to the Horace Greeley Writers Symposium in East Poultney, Vermont. Children's book author David Elliot was the key note speaker and he was fabulous. He spoke about 'The Fool' as a kind of spiritual guide for all writers. That you have to 'let go' go ahead and be 'stupid' and just see what comes when you write, that you never know what is going to happen when you let your sub-conscious mind lead the way. The symposium was held in this lovely old clapboard church on the village green. As if was my first 'writers' event, I didn't know quite what to expect and didn't realize I could have brought my books and placed them out front but I got reams of good advice, helpful tips, etc.

So, I sent out maybe 15 letters to the bigger libraries in our tiny state of Vermont asking politely if they would consider allowing me to 'read' from my books and also I included what I thought were interesting 'talks' on Createspace and the war between Amazon and booksellers, Romance writing and how it's changed, Creative Writing in general, and no response whatsoever. Disheartening. I know that libraries get many requests from writers to promote their own books and that, like Canada, Vermont has its own sense of time. The phrase "Canada Time" comes to mind which my father used to use to describe why it would take an entire summer for anything to get done, fixed or solved. Well it works for Vermont too whether it's an issue with the town, roads, neighbors, contractors, (well, especially contractors!) Anyway. Am I wrong in thinking it would be just good business practice to send an e-mail saying 'Thanks but we're already scheduled for this season'? I mean, I am a local author after all...and fantasy, romance, adventure are popular genres. Anyway, I did have my first reading in the library across the street from my house, very fun. Maybe that's what you have to do...move across the street!

Argh! It really is the wild wild west out there on the internet! My book The Fledgling seems to have hit a nerve with the pirating book trade. It's up on ebay for twice what I'm selling it for on Amazon and I just found it on an Australian/NZ book site for $15 more than I'm selling it for. True It's my personal favorite of the ones I've written so far but I think they just like the cover. So here's the question and I'd appreciate any input from fellow Goodreaders...If I raise my price on Amazon ($12) do you think it will discourage pirates? Or does anything discourage them? Or as one pirate told another author
' You should be so pleased we're stealing your book and selling it to people who want to read it' ( for free, this was an e-book problem) I just find this so weird! I had no interest when this was happening to singers and song writers but now I understand their pain! It took me 2 years to write these first two books...jeez...

My sister Eileen is an author who had the great good fortune of working for many years with a small British independent publisher. When I started writing 'Aolwynd', (I hadn't even changed the name yet) she introduced me and I thought I was the luckiest person in the world to be taken on! This just doesn't happen! Woo hoo! I rode high on my cloud for a while until I stopped getting any communication, he just disappeared, or so it seemed to me. I found out much later he had decided it was time for him to enjoy life! He retired. So many writing friends of mine have similar stories...publishing is a volatile, quirky business whether it's the big houses or small independent ones, things happen and life throws a monkey wrench at your precious project...or a spanner as the case may be!
Then began the discouraging and very typical search for an agent, an editor, a publisher...Hello! Anyone out there?
I discovered through 2 years of countless blind alleys, many rejections, and a few nibbles, that publishers already have scads of books waiting on their desks that are similar to yours, no matter what you are writing they literally don't need to add yours to the pile. This has nothing to do with whether you are a great writer with a super story to tell, it's just sheer overwhelming volume. Even if they like your work, ( I was informed) it's 18 months or more before they even get around to editing. I'm not a young chicken anymore (although for giggles, I put a couple 'younger' pictures on the backs of the first two books)...and I don't have time to waste! That's when I decided to self-publish. And that's when the truth of those words came back to haunt me. "Enjoy the writing, that's the fun part." Now he was talking primarily about the editing and formatting, but as I have discovered, it's so much more than that. Writing the thing is one thing, publishing/promoting is quite another!