Insecure Writers Support Group #IWSG post--my special guest Ann Best is back to say hello and share her take on SEOs!

It's the first Wednesday of the month, and today I'd like to thank Alex J Cavanaugh and his trusty co-hosts who will do the rounds, making sure everyone's post gets a look in.

Co-hosts! Please visit:

Lauren Hennessy
Lisa Buie-Collard
Lidy Wilks
Christine Rains
Mary Aalgaard

Today I invited a long-time blogger friend from back in the day when blogging seemed so much simpler and yes, friendlier. I was sorry when my friend Ann Best, known to many of you, decided twice that she could no longer handle blogging. Thankfully, this successful memoir author is back with a WordPress blog where she hopes to garner new readers. 

Ever wonder about SEO? Well today Ann is sharing with us what she's hoping to achieve. At the moment she's feeling somewhat insecure as she builds her audience. I hope by putting Ann front and centre on my blog today, a little of her insecurity will float away as you make her welcome.

Over to you , Ann...

It’s wonderful to be blogging again. 

It really is. 

I’ve missed you, “Old Friend from Far Away.”

That’s the title of a wonderful memoir I just bought by Natalie Goldberg, and it reminds me of “old” blogger friends. Of so many of you who are still “out there.” I hope you’ll stay around for a while because it’s so true what Ms. Goldberg says in her almost-haiku introduction:

To have an old friend visit

    from far away—

      what a delight!

Memoir is the genre that life led me to, culminating, when I was 58, in a rough draft of my published memoir, my first and probably only published memoir, In the Mirror. A Memoir of Shattered Secrets, published by WiDo Publishing.

Though you never know. I didn’t know about two years ago, at age 73+, feeling overwhelmed from over 28 years of caring for my disabled daughter, that I would ever come back to blogging.

Why am I back?

Because I like people, and I like to write.

Because I thought, I’ve written a memoir that I’d like some more people to read. We're all insecure about finding new readers – aren’t we? We all would like to make some money with our writing – wouldn’t we? And even if we get a traditional publisher, we still have to do our own marketing, something that most of us are insecure about.

And so . . .

I was browsing the Internet. I think I was on Facebook when I saw the advertisement: Join Wealthy Affiliate. Turn Any Passion Into a Successful Marketing Business. This is where you promote other’s products. But I soon decided, after joining, that I’d set up a site to promote my own product – my book. And with Wordpress you can monetize (mine isn’t a free one).

I’ve been walked through building the site, the basics. I’ve learned about keywords (extremely important) and search engine optimization. And more.

Still learning. I don’t intend to be a marketing guru. Mainly just a blogger. And a writer. You write copy, or in my case it’s more personal essay.

I know the unspoken rule these days in blogging is to be short and sweet, but you need at least 1500 words for the search engines to notice you they say. And at least five posts. And more. And more. 

I’ve managed two posts so far.

I’m having a wonderful time.

I feel energized.

Ideas are everywhere. 

As a personal blogger, I stroll through my childhood, teen years, marriage, divorce, disasters. And research what others have written. IMO there’s always something to write about.

It won’t be exactly like the good ol’ blogger days – the world has changed. But I’m so happy to be back, and look forward to reconnecting with “old” friends “far away.”

Thank you Ann.

Please Tweet: Join #memoir #writer Ann Best at http://ctt.ec/b3Gj0+

You can find Ann's new WordPress blog HERE. Please visit and say hello and check out her latest post, The Walking Wounded!

Ann didn't ask me to promote her book, but it can't hurt if you like to read memoir.

$2.99 Amazon.com

179 reviews!!

• Have you ever taken a long blogging break?
• How difficult was it to return to regular blogging and find readers?
• Are you on WordPress or do you find blogspot satisfactory? Or are you on both (like me).

After you leave a comment for Ann, please click HERE and read more IWSG posts.

And the Write...Edit...Publish (WEP) winners are announced today! Please visit and congratulate three clever authors if you have the time!

From Traditional Publishing to e-Publishing. Author Ann Carbine Best tells us why and how she went indie...

Hello there!

Those of you who have been following me a long time might remember my Publication Party. As an aspiring author I wanted to hear the stories of bloggers who had broken through and found a publisher. Along with my Byronic Hero series, (where we wallowed in Heathcliff, Darcy and Rochester) this was the most popular series I've ever run on my blog (which turns 4 this April!)

Ann Best was one of the authors who'd just been accepted for publication with her memoir, In the Mirror. She told us of her journey to publication and shared her life with us. Ann has always inspired me and I count her as a sister across the oceans, one who I'd love to visit one day. We've remained in close touch and today I bring you Ann again, for an update on her journey and an insight into her most recent projects.

Over to you, Ann!

A small press, WiDo Publishing, accepted my memoir In the Mirror, back in December of 2010. It was a long and interesting process that took place at a time when the publishing industry began going through massive changes. It was a major change in my life in other ways, too. Because I was housebound with my disabled daughter, my only means of marketing was through the Internet, so I had to learn how to blog.

My seventy-year-old brain was stretched to the limit! So much so that I didn’t think I could ever self-publish. However, at my age, I didn’t want to wait years to publish something else; and I knew that a novella would be a tough sell, especially one that didn’t fall in one of the “popular” genres.

But I had a novella in my files, Svetlana Garetova’s story.

I met Svetlana in 1997 when she was a fill-in aide for my disabled daughter. On day one, I told her I was interested in miracles and angel stories for a book I was writing. After showering my daughter, she started telling me how she came to America. Instantly I recognised a dramatically compelling story. I held up my hand -. “Stop! I’ve got to record this,” I got out my tape recorder.

 I spent several days transcribing what she told me into story form. But I never did the miracles and angels book, and so her story sat in my file for years. Then last fall when I got it out, I thought, This is fascinating.

I’m getting older by the minute, and don’t have the years to spare to query publishers, let alone the patience. I’ve always enjoyed a challenge, so I decided to self-publish it, partly to see if I could. I couldn’t do a cover on my own. I absolutely can NOT figure out PhotoShop. So a friend came to my rescue. She offered to do it for free, but I paid her anyway.

This was all I had to pay. From a lifetime of reading and writing, and with my editing and proofreading skills, I knew I could produce an error-free manuscript. I just needed some readers who would tell me if something didn’t make sense.

After they gave me their feedback, I went through the manuscript again and again to make sure everything did make sense, and then I had to figure out how to format it for uploading. It took time, but Mark Coker’s Smashwords guide is designed for dummies like me. Up it went on Smashwords.

However, getting it uploaded to Amazon was another problem. I finally used one of the programs suggested in Amazon’s style guide, Mobi Pocket Creator.

Through a lot of trial and error, it worked! Phew! Mission Impossible became Mission Accomplished!

I think Svetlana would be pleased with the way it turned out.

Brief Synopsis:


When Svetlana Garetova flies with her four-year-old son from Moscow in Russia to Salt Lake City in America for a visit with Jimmy Rafael, she becomes very ill. He nurses her to back to health, but when she recovers, she realizes with horror that she has missed the deadline in Moscow to pay protection money for her businesses. Her distraught mother tells her that she would be safer in America, and when Jimmy says he will marry her, she accepts his proposal even though she barely knows him and has some misgivings. On their wedding night, she discovers who he really is, and that she and her son are almost prisoners in his house. She must find a way to escape, and people to help them.

You can download a sample from the beginning of the book on Amazon. (Link: http://www.amazon.com/Ann-Carbine-Best/e/B0053YU4B8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1   This also links to In the Mirror)

You can also read a sample of it on my blog post, a scene that’s from the middle of the book, the most dramatic scene in the story. (link to the post: http://annbestblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/roland-yeomans-novel-let-the-wind-blow-through-you-free-for-kindle/#comments)

 Wasn't it wonderful hearing from Ann today? I wish her every success in her new self-publishing career. I still hope she will write another memoir for us...

• Would you share your self-publishing story with me?
• Do you think you'll stick to the traditional route?
• Do you read many self-pubbed books?

 

Book review, In the Mirror, a memoir of shattered secrets, by Ann Carbine Best

I have waited it seems a very long time to read the memoir, In the Mirror, by fellow blogger Ann Carbine Best. I was delighted when it was in the mail when I returned from my overseas trip. It was great company while I tried to get my land legs again.

A memoir has to be cleverly written or it becomes just a recount which can be quite boring. Ann’s memoir is anything but boring! She has used her vast arsenal of writerly talents to compile a riveting story of her life. It is the generous use of dialogue which sets this memoir apart, drawing the reader in. I felt like I was going through the journey with Ann, (and offering her advice along the way.)

And what a difficult journey it is. For a married woman with four children to find out her husband really preferred men must have been painful beyond imagining. I’m sure many women reading In the Mirror would be yelling at Ann: Give him the boot! Don’t put up with it! But Ann is not just any woman; she is a woman of remarkable strength and purpose. She had married for life, she was protective of her children, she was not going to give up easily. Even her husband Larry said on breaking the news: ‘You probably want to leave me.’ Ann replied: ‘No. I don’t want to leave you. You’re my husband. The children love you.’ (p.23). And so Larry stayed, but wasn’t prepared to give up men. The marriage continued for seven years after Ann found out her husband had cheated on her. Seven turbulent years.

I was surprised at the extend of intervention from the Mormon church of which Ann and Larry were both members. It must have been helpful for Ann to have the men of the church to call on in her times of distress, but I didn’t always feel the advice they gave was in Ann’s best interests, but maybe that’s just independent me speaking.

For such a tale of woe, Ann is never woeful. She takes many blows, but receives them with grace. The reader can’t help becoming emotionally involved. I was very angry at some of the complications of her ex-husband’s gay life, how it affected the children, how it made a difficult situation even more difficult. I was angry at Ann’s financial struggle, especially after Jen’s car accident and resultant brain damage, while her ex-husband was in a position to help her but chose not to for selfish reasons.

Then I was surprised when Ann chose to marry again, this time to a man obviously addicted to alcohol, going against the advice of the church. But was it the financial pressure and her need to see her children secure that was behind this decision? Once again Ann and her family are put through years of turmoil until the inevitable happens and Tom is no longer with them.

Throughout Ann’s struggle, it is obvious she retains feelings for her ex-husband and that she regrets the breakdown of a marriage which she believed would last into eternity. In the Mormon marriage ceremony the bride and groom stand ‘in front of mirrors with mirrors behind them that reflected their endless images, symbolic of eternal marriage’ (p.197). This is where I think the title In the Mirror originates. But sadly even though Larry and Ann’s images were reflected in the mirror on their wedding day, their marriage was not to be for eternity.

For a great memoir which is a celebration of the resiliency of the human spirit, read Ann Carbine Best’s In the Mirror. I eagerly await her next memoir. Hear me Ann??

Available from the publisher, WiDo.

http://widopublishing.com/ourtitles.aspx
Available Kindle and Nook for $3.99

Ann Carbine Best's memoir In the Mirror is released - e-book and print!

Click on the image to order print version.

Sixteen months after Eric was born, I got home from work and found Larry talking on the phone. He looked startled when he saw me. Megan was on the couch, coloring in a book. I assumed Eric was asleep since he usually slept all morning for his father.

“I’ll see what my wife says,” Larry said. He paused a moment then hung up the phone.

“Who were you talking to?”

“A counselor.”

“You’re seeing a counselor?”

“Yes. A man on campus.”

“Why? Is there something wrong with me?”

“No. It’s me. Will you go with me?”

It was the end of April, the long winter was ending, the children might be well for a while. I wanted to enjoy the sun and the blossoming scenery. I didn’t want to see a counselor, which made me shake my head at myself. I was the one who needed to talk, not Larry. When our second daughter was a baby, I felt overwhelmed with marriage and went to a counselor. On the second visit Larry agreed to go with me. We took some tests and found out that he didn’t need to talk, or didn’t want to.

“He says we need a marriage counselor,” Larry said.

Again I asked, “Why?”

“I have a problem,” he said, avoiding my eyes.

*

The counselor was Don, mid-thirties, married with two children, a slender man with light brown hair that was a contrast to Larry’s darker and very curly brown hair. Always more comfortable in a room with women, I sat uneasily in a room with one man I thought I knew fairly well and one I didn’t know at all.

I asked Don, “What do you know about Mormons?”

“They put a lot of emphasis on education,” he said.

That was all he said.

In the next session, he suggested that we read sensual books, go to sensual movies, and use devices for sexual stimulation to improve our marriage. Obviously, he didn’t know how morally conservative we were. I cringed and glanced at Larry who nodded at Don, and a few days later came home with The Sensuous Woman for me and The Joy of Sex for both of us. I was mesmerized by the books, and uncomfortable. How was filling my mind with these images helping Larry with his problem, whatever his problem was? I was even more confused and stunned when Don said that adultery could sometimes be a good thing. What was he suggesting? When I finally told him how uncomfortable I was with his suggestions, he said he had been waiting for me to speak up.

“Do you realize what you do?” he said. “You assume you know what we’re thinking.”

“She does do that,” Larry said.

He looked at Larry. “That lets you off the hook.” He looked at me. “He knows if he makes a few simple comments he can sit back while you take the ball and run with it.” He turned to Larry again. “You let her do this, you know.”

Larry nodded.

“That way you don’t have to say anything.”

“It works, doesn’t it?” Larry said with a grin.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Don. “I’m just so confused. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I’m trying to help you,” he said. “Larry’s more frightened of emotions than you are.”

Larry nervously tapped his fingers on his thighs. Was this true? Was he afraid to say what he felt?

“This week I want you to share secrets,” Don said.

“Secrets? I don’t have any secrets,” I laughed nervously.

“Just see what happens,” Don said.

In the Mirror, a Memoir of Shattered Secrets by Ann Carbine Best is the story of a woman who planned on her marriage lasting forever. When Ann marries Larry in September of 1961, she’s certain he will be that eternal companion. Eleven years later, she’s devastated when he confesses that he’s been having affairs with men. She wants to help him. She wants to save her marriage. However, powerful emotions pull Larry away from his family, and eight years later their marriage ends. As a single parent, Ann is now faced with four grieving children who do not want to leave their father and their home in Utah Valley. She wants to start a new life in a new place, and moves two of the children with her to Virginia. When she graduates with her master’s degree, she wants to teach literature, but her daughters are in a catastrophic accident. Change of plans. More trials. How will she take care of her children, especially her brain injured daughter? Will she be able to stay in Virginia, the place she now loves? William Faulkner once wrote: “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” In the Mirror is a story of a woman determined to make peace with the past, a story of hope and survival and love.

Ann Best is a great friend and author. Let's support her in the release of her long-awaited memoir. She will need reviews as many won't buy a book without seeing at least a dozen reviews. Help our Ann! I will review Ann's book when I've read it. I am still waiting for my pre-ordered copy to arrive! Meanwhile below is an excerpt from Karen Gowen's review...you can read Karen's full review and many others on Ann's blog, Ann Best Memoir Author.

The writing style is intense in its simplicity, ideal for In the Mirror, A Memoir of Shattered Secrets. I got drawn right in and read the story straight through in a day and a half...In the beginning, it's a tale of shattered dreams and betrayal. In the end, a story of hope and determination, survival and love.


In the Mirror, NOOK.




In the Mirror, KINDLE, $3.99



Ann Carbine Best's Memoir - In the Mirror about to be released!!

Many of you will know Ann from her blog, The Long Journey Home. You may have enjoyed her guest post for my recent Publication Party series. Ann still hadn't completed her publication journey at that point, so I've asked her to do a repeat performance. (I had to go back to my long posts for today. I hope you'll bear with us!)

Firstly, a little about Ann for those who do not know her, yet:

Born in 1940, I was privileged to live through what I call the great years of magazines that published a lot of fiction. The big publishers were in New York (some still are), and I dreamed of being an editor in the Big Apple and eventually a published writer. I was a dreamer and a romantic. Now at age seventy (seventy-one in May) I’m a realist. But I never relinquished, “The Dream.” I always wanted to publish a novel as over the years I wrote and published stories and poems, some winning prestigious awards. Yet, I never relinquished The Dream. Now my dream is about to become reality!

Ann's memoir, In the Mirror has received some wonderful advance praise. She already has her Amazon site. You can go there and order Ann's book soon. The release date is April 25, 2011.

Let me share some reviews with you. Read some/all, to get a feel for the quality book Ann has written:

This moving, inspiring, and candid memoir, In the Mirror, A Memoir of Shattered Secrets, is a simply told yet eloquent story of a woman whose mortal journey takes her through a series of life-shattering crises, each of which could break any one of us. An idealist and a dreamer, shaken by something amiss in her marriage, she turns to a brief flirtation with another man but quickly retreats, remaining faithful to her gay husband who is already acting out his choices with others. Then, the marriage ends and the silent heartbreak and ordeals continue as this mother of four struggles to provide for her children; a mother endowed with a "stiff upper lip" and a strong faith in herself and God that give her the ability to endure and prevail. Her mirror of well-intended choices becomes a cautionary tale about how bad choices shatter, crack and distort. . . mirrors and lives. It may not have been the story Ann Best had hoped to write, but it is the actual story of how she coped--and triumphed--on this fallen world we call Earth.

~Richard H. Cracroft, Nan Osmond Grass Professor in English and Emeritus at Brigham Young University; Author/editor of 13 books and over 250 articles on American literature; Chair of BYU's English Department and Dean of the College of Humanities.

How privileged I feel to have been invited along on Ann Best’s trip through her life. She portrays herself, and those who shared her journey, with unflinching honesty. That’s no easy task for the memoirist. Her paucity of description and her generous use of dialogue kept the story moving. Ultimately, I was left awed by the resiliency of this author’s spirit. In the Mirror is a must-read for anyone who thinks they can’t handle what life offers. Eternity is a long, long time. Ann Best has a firm grasp on its tail, and I don’t expect she will ever let go.

~Diane Marcou, Editor; Author, The Smuggler’s Ghost.

The quality that rings true through Ann Best's memoir is its fundamental honesty. Her spare yet gently compelling prose lays bare the thoughts and feelings of a woman left to deal with the aftermath when she discovers that her husband--the father of her children--is gay. By the time we've finished traveling with Ann Best on her personal journey of thirty-odd years, we feel that we've made a new and valued friend.

~Jonathan Langford, Author, No Going Back.

The sequential tragedies in this memoir seem almost impossible for one person to bear. The author encounters more tragedies and carries more burdens on her small body than most of us will ever know in our lifetimes, yet with each blow she finds ways to move forward, often with help from friends, occasionally through miracles. She portrays all of the “characters” so realistically that they are likable even in their weaknesses. The writing is brilliant, the dialogue natural and unforced. She portrays her experiences with such skill that I suspect readers who have never experienced a gay or alcoholic husband or a brain-injured daughter will be able to relate to her as she struggles to provide a stable center for her children in the midst of chaos.

~Colleen K. Whitley, English Professor; Editor, Brigham Young’s Homes; Co-editor, The Silver Queen, Worth Their Salt, Worth Their Salt, Too, and From the Ground Up: The History of Mining in Utah (Utah State University Press).

Welcome Ann! It's great to have you back again.

Ann: I’m excited to be here again! Thanks, Denise, for asking me to come back.So I’m here today to answer some questions that weren’t covered last time. Since I was hosted here on February24th as a guest at Denise’s Publication Party, exciting things have been happening since. I’ve received the cover of my book and the final galleys.

Denise: When I was last speaking to you, you were waiting for your cover. It was quite a long wait. Tell us how you felt when it arrived.

Ann: I knew my publisher, WiDo, was working on a lot of great titles, so I knew it would be awhile before I got the cover. That didn’t make the wait any easier! It was so good when it finally came.

Denise: How do they decide on the design for the cover? These days covers are so important in selling a book and there are some magnificent covers out there.

Ann: Since my book is a memoir, my editor wanted some personal pictures. Fortunately, I had kept some black and whites from my first marriage, which is the center of the book, and was told that since my story and characters are “true,” I’d get to preview the cover. So you can imagine how nervously I was waiting for its arrival. When I saw it, well, wow! It was spooky to see my family the way we were about thirty-five years ago staring out at me!

Denise: Were you happy with the end result?

Ann: Yes, I was pleased with the cover. I think the designer did a great job. I’m looking at the photographs and thinking: Isn’t life strange. On my wedding night I had no idea what was coming: divorce, a second troubled marriage, a catastrophic accident.

Denise: That has been a lot to come through. Where did your writing figure amongst all the pain and turmoil?

Ann: There was always my dream. I started writing in elementary school, and always wanted to publish a book. I always worked towards that. I never lost sight of my dream. That has been a long journey, too!

Denise: How do you fit all this in your life while being a caregiver to Jen and now you're making plans to travel to  help another daughter who’s having neck surgery?

Ann: Like many people I’ve got a lot going on right now. Besides my care-giving duties as Jen’s mother (most of my blogger friends know Jen,) my younger brother recently died. My only brother. My only and younger sister died 15 months ago. They abandoned me! He lived in Utah, I’m in Virginia, so I’ve been calling a lot of friends and relatives out west, trying to help my brother’s three children as they’ve been dealing with all of this. He was divorced, but I’m close to his ex-wife, too. I can tell you that he’s also the star of my memoir in progress: how I rescued him from the homeless shelter…


But, meanwhile, I’ve got to get my current memoir finished.


Denise: Oh, your next memoir sounds intriguing. So now you have the galleys of your current memoir. It must have been high excitement when they arrived. How does it feel to be at this point? Perhaps there’re some newbies who’re not sure what you even mean by galleys. What are galley proofs, and at what stage do you get them? How long is the process expected to take?

Ann: The galley is the last stage in the process. A galley: In the “old” days it was large sheets of paper. Today, it’s a digital printout that you read on the computer screen. I’m reading 14-point Times New Roman. The large font and the wide spread tremendously help me catch those “little” details that I missed in earlier drafts. This is the stage where you look for punctuation errors and those few remaining rough sentences. I think this is the most fun part of the process.

Denise: Fun, Ann? I don’t think I’ve ever heard an author describe reading the galleys as fun.

Ann: Well, I’m having fun! I’m about to finish a second read-through of the book’s galleys, and that’s it. Maybe that’s part of the fun. Knowing I’m NEARLY THERE!! I’ve been working on them intensively for two full days. This is at the end of almost a year of editing five complete drafts. I’ve read about how the late Maxwell Perkins, famous editor who worked with Thomas Wolfe and others, went through the massive drafts Wolfe put out. Editing can be a very long process! Until some excellent “second eyes” started working with me on my early drafts, my book was far from a finished and publishable product.
Denise: So Ann, when will you finish this and hand over your baby?

Ann: Today (Tuesday, March 29th) it’ll be done! I’ll email the changes to my editor. (I love all this awesome technology.) (Denise butts in - UPDATE! Ann just emailed to say she's finished the galleys and has sent them off into the ether er, to the editor!) Barring publishing problems (that can occur), the release date for In the Mirror is April 25th. Wow! Gives me the shivers. I can’t believe this is almost a done deal. Suddenly, it all seems to be going so fast--like my life.

Denise: Ann you make no secret of your age – nearly 71. How did you get the energy to go through this grueling process? Other people might be thinking about chilling out and not doing much of anything.

Ann: I’m finding that the older you get, time flies on swift wings. But I’m enjoying the ride, enjoying the journey. The journey is what this is all about. I’m looking forward to my next memoir, and my next…

And so are we, Ann. Thank you for sharing with us today and every best wish for great success with In the Mirror.