As my sibling and fellow author Allyn M. Stotz can attest, writing books is a hilly, bumpy ride with a lot of potholes. You might be flying fast towards the top of the hill, pushed along by great success in selling your book or terrific comments from a reader, only to be jolted into reality by an equally slow event or thrust into a pothole by the everyday realities that get in the way of writing a book. It sometimes seems like you’re constantly struggling to find the energy to climb back up to that sweet crest.
© Alphaspirit | Dreamstime.com – Driving Uphill Arrow Photo
This spring has mostly been spent at the bottom of the hill. Sales have been slow, and we’re in between publication of new books. For mom and me, that’s about to change. The fourth book of The Fate Series: Treasured Fate, will be out in July and we’re already planning an official launch for September. Allyn also will have a new book out this fall: a Halloween story called Pumpkin Squash. All of us: mom, Allyn and I, know that our busiest season of selling is about to start, and the excitement has already begun.
For the launch of Treasured Fate, Mom and I are returning to our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Applebee’s, which hosted a big party last Spring for Violet Fate’s unveiling. We picked this restaurant for a reason: mom and I meet there on a regular basis because it’s close to her house, reasonably priced, changes the menu frequently enough to remain interesting, and we like the food and staff. We acknowledged that staff in our first book, Twist of Fate, thanked them in last year’s book of short stories for hosting the launch of Violet Fate, and are mentioning them again in this current book. We do this because the wait staff gets to listen to us discuss how to shoot or poison people and how to get away with all kinds of crimes. The staff and management also stop by the table frequently to encourage us and find out how the books are coming.
As far as what to expect from this latest book: Treasured Fate is about a woman kicked out of her own home who gets on a bus with no destination in mind, ends up in the Lancaster area and answers an ad a local farmer has placed for a wife. Our beloved private investigator Sam Osborne is a good friend of the farmer and becomes involved when someone tries to hurt the woman. Behind the whole plot is a treasure that everyone knows exists and no one can find. Is it the reason someone is after the woman?
You’ll have to read the book to find out. Or better yet, come to our event this fall and we’ll give you a first-hand description.
I’ll write more on our launch, the progress of Treasured Fate, and fall’s busy schedule in upcoming blogs. Now that we’ve begun climbing towards a crest of the hill again, I’ve resolved to keeping in better touch with our readers.
If you’d like an invitation to the launch, please email us at swopeparente@gmail.com.
–Genilee Swope Parente
swopeparente 