We Raid The Library

On May 30, we commandeered a table or two at the library. Under the stairs, in time-honored Harry Potter fashion, but we dispensed with the cupboard.

Present when the picture was taken: (standing) Ardis Moonlight, T. Lee Harris, Jeannine Baumgartle, Joanna Foreman, Bonnie Abraham.

(seated) Ginny Fleming, Marian Allen, Joy Brown Kirchgessner.

We had our GHOSTS: ON THE SQUARE… AND ELSEWHERE…. and our new book, MOST WANTED.

Excerpts from all our books in print are available at the Southern Indiana Writers web site. All except THERE’S SOMETHING UNDER THE BED-TIME STORIES–we sold out of that one at the Howard Steamboat Museum Chautauqua and need to do a reprint.

Had a fairly steady stream of browsers and we always enjoy that. We like it when people feel free to come and look and talk without feeling pressured to buy. Not that we’re opposed to sales, but we like it that people feel welcome at our table.

Frank Bill dropped by for a visit. Frank is a writer of gritty noir fiction–or, as he chillingly assures us, SEMI-fiction.

We talked to Ms. Snyder, who does Corydon’s Unsavory Past, and she thought, for some odd reason, we would fit right in with that presentation. We also talked to the folks at Magdalena’s about an eat-and-meet event there. We’re planning on hitting Context science fiction convention again this year, and hoping to go to Publishers Row Lit Festival in Chicago next year. “‘Roun’ ‘roun’ get around, we get around” is going to be our theme song, I do believe!

MA

Chautauqua is not a Vegetable

The Southern Indiana Writers Group had a table at the Howard Steamboat Museum’s annual Victorian Chautauqua last weekend. We sold bunches of books, not even counting a member who had a separate table to sell her own books. Yay, all of us! The Chautauqua had a few lectures, but mostly entertainment. They had games and activities for kids and a steam calliope which played between lectures and live music.

The live music ranged from acoustic guitar to big band, and this inexplicable Hawaiian-shirted barbershop group.

Joy, T Lee, Dale the Roadie and Marian came to set up at too-early a.m. on Saturday. T and Joy brought tables, all brought chairs, T brought ground tarp, rugs and canopy, T and Marian brought food. Joanna had organized everything beautifully, so set-up was a breeze, once the tent was up.

Not Us

It rained off and on during the first part of Saturday, but it didn’t seem to discourage the crowds. It cleared up by the afternoon and both days were cool and beautiful. We met a Goth girl named Elizabeth, who was

Not Us

tickled to hear that Marian’s Yahoo nick is MomGoth and who said we could show her picture. Also met a most beautiful pug dog named Darla Rose, whose mommy said we could put her picture on our blog.

Ginny and Joanna, Dirk and Samantha and Dave all came for shifts, but T was there all of both days. She is a trooper! Others would have been there all of both days, too, but prior engagements and sick family members interfered. Slackers! Where are your priorities??!!

Also Not Us

Ginny found that one of the costumed folks cruising the site is a distant cousin, which was cool. The man’s real name is Jamie Eiler. Who he was dressed up to represent, this writer does not know.

We walked around, meeting people and buying things from other merchants. We had so much fun talking with the people who stopped by our booth, we would have considered the weekend a success if we hadn’t sold anything. The sales just made it all so much better.

The books that attracted the most attention were the ghost/horror books. GHOSTS: ON THE SQUARE… AND ELSEWHERE…., GHOST WRITERS and THERE’S SOMETHING UNDER THE BED-TIME STORIES sold the most. NOVEL INGREDIENTS, stories about food with a recipe accompanying every story, and DRAGON: OUR TALES, stories about dragons–real or imaginary–did next best. Joanna Foreman’s GHOSTS OF I-65 also sold well. For excerpts of stories from most recent SIW anthologies including our latest, MOST WANTED, click here.

We even had time to do some work. Joanna brought a chapter of her WIP, and we read and critiqued it there in the booth. We meet every week, but we still spent most of the whole weekend together, working and sharing. This isn’t how artistic temperaments are supposed to go, is it?

We plan to return to the chautauqua next year. Meanwhile, come see us at the Harrison County Library on May 30, 2009 from 1-4.

MA

Woman Meets Cow. Fact Meets Fiction

Okay, so Ardis and I went to Dawn Creations in Lanesville, on St. John’s Church Road, just behind Zabel’s Hardware. At Dawn Creations, we had home-made soup, sub sandwiches and home-made lemon cake (all GOOD). The coffee was outstanding.

Anyway, we were leaving and started talking to the owner/baker, Dawn Clifton, and she turns out to be The Lady With The Cow In Her Kitchen! A couple of years ago, I wrote a story called “Home on the Range” for the Southern Indiana Writers Group’s anthology, IT’S ALWAYS SOMETHING, based (very loosely) on a newspaper article about a cow that invaded a woman’s baking kitchen. This area being the way it is, I knew it was only a matter of time before I met her, and yesterday was the day.

She was very good-natured about it, and blessed us with a blow-by-blow personal account of what happened. SHE ought to be a writer–the way she told the story, which must have been harrowing at the time, had us holding our sides, laughing. She’s also a good cook and a lovely person.

Here she is, standing next to Dale the Whale–er, I mean me.

Today, I’m going back by the restaurant to take her a copy of the book with the cow story in it. To read the article in The Corydon Democrat about What Really Happened, click here.

To read an excerpt of the story, click here.

MA

Keep It Clean

Okay, we got a hit on this blog from somebody doing a search for “sex on leather couch”. That is SO not what we’re about! Do you know know that your search terms show up on our Dashboard for all of us to see and mock?

Just because one of our titles is UNBRIDLED LUST…. All the stories are no hotter than PG, most are more like G. You could read them to your maiden aunt and not raise a blush on her withered cheek. I believe that it’s one of the titles currently only available at booksignings.

Fortunately, we’re doing two booksignings the first part of this year:

April 25 at 4 pm at Destinations Booksellers

May 30 from 1-4 pm at Harrison County Library

We’ll also have our GHOSTS ON THE SQUARE anthology and this year’s anthology, MOST WANTED.

Hope to see you, but just forget about the couch thing, ‘k?

MA

Santa Comes to SIW

We met last night for our annual Christmas party. Despite the absence of some treasured members, the rest of us carried on courageously. Everybody brought something to eat and a present that cost no more than $5. It’s amazing what you can find for under $5 or stuck in a closet or something.

We ate and talked and ate and talked and ate and talked. Then this loudmouth said, “It’s after eight. If we’re going to do the presents, we’d better get to it.” Joy tore some paper into strips and numbered them and put them into a container and we passed them around. Then we ate and talked some more. So this loudmouth says, real loud, “Who has number one?” Carl said, “I do.” After a pause of about three beats, this loudmouth says, “Pick a present!” So Carl gets up and starts hefting them to test their weight, shaking them, sniffing them…. So this loudmouth says, “TONIGHT, Carl.” After that, it went pretty quickly. Presents greeted with delight included: a dry-erase magnetic board for noting story ideas, a favorite book passed along to a new reader, and a “lump of coal” (chocolate) in an elegant glass candy dish.

A phone call came from one of our absent ones, so we got to say hi, anyway.

A fine time was had by all. We’re looking forward to the new year, with new projects and plans.

Happy Holidays, from St. Nicholas’ day through Epiphany and so on. Or, as Buzz Lightyear would say, “To Epiphany… and beyond!“

–The Loudmouth

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Signings On Black Friday and Beyond

Black Friday, November 28, 9:00 AM

The book signing at Magdalena’s Coffee Cafe on the Square in Corydon would have begun in timely fashion if the books had been there. But these books have minds of their own, you know, being as the featured publication was Ghosts On the Square…and Elsewhere. Our latest, and highly successful, collection of ghost stories was published in October 2008 featuring tales of hauntings, not only along Corydon’s square, but other unlikely places in Harrison County, Indiana. We had featured it in the October Ghost Walk in Corydon written about previously in this blog. Anyway, the books arrived simultaneously along with two authors and a display table, ten minutes late, so we got set up pronto.

Magdalena’s was kind enough to offer the writers free coffee and tea, just for being who we are: The Southern Indiana Writers. Five of us showed up, the others went shopping or had family in town since it was the day after Thanksgiving, after all.

Several customers came in that morning, many of them looked over our wares and a few made a purchase or two. We had a fun time, like we always do, and some of us learned some new tricks. Joanna Foreman, for instance, had never played Scrabble. (Why would a writer even publicly admit such a thing?) On top of that, she proclaimed she wasn’t good with words. And she calls herself a writer! She plopped herself on a beautiful leather couch in front of the fireplace and played the game with her granddaughter. I’ll give you one guess who won. The 11-year old!

Another interesting twist that morning: a man who calls himself Butchie was seated in the front window, playing guitar, adding to the genuine cozy atmosphere of the coffee shop. Butchie, with his permission, appears in Marian Allen’s “A Love Song for Pythias”.

After the signing, a few of us shopped in the unique boutiques in downtown Corydon. A couple of days after that, Marian Allen visited the Visitor’s Information Center, where they were thrilled to see her with the books. Seems that many people have stopped by in recent days asking where they could acquire a copy. So it appears that Ghosts on the Square…and Elsewhere will be available there for purchase for quite some time to come.

–Joanna

Saturday, December 13, 1-4

Three of us made it to the signing at the Harrison County Public Library. Everybody else was busy, ill, without transport, and various combinations of the above. We had a good day, nevertheless.  Sold some books and met a local author of gritty noir stories set in this area. I have blurred his features in order to protect him. Of course, it isn’t much protection, since I’m going to give him a shout-out: his name is FRANK BILL! If you like your fiction visceral, you’ll love his stuff. Even if you don’t like your fiction visceral, he’s so good you’ll want to read his prose anyway.

As Joanna said, our GHOSTS book is available at the Corydon Visitor’s Center, and (along with many of our other anthologies) also online from electronic booksellers and by order through independent booksellers, and through our publisher/printer, Lulu.

–MA

Road Trip To Carmel

Yeah, so we carjacked this Volvo and forced the driver to take us to Carmel. This was on November the something. Doesn’t matter–it’s over, now.

I took pictures of my co-conspirators, but they pointed out that posting them would kind of make what we did with the driver a waste of effort, so I won’t post them.

We approached our target:

Little did they know…. HA!

The Mystery Company turned out to be a great place, and we would have said so, even if it DIDN’T have a coffee and chocolate shop as part of it.

Jim Huang and a charming woman whose name I never got were actually happy to see us! We don’t get that very often.

And a fine time was had by all.

We forced the driver to bring us back home, where he was released unharmed. Happy, happy day.

Our next signing is December 13 from 1-4pm at the Harrison County Public Library. Meanwhile, we had a signing at Cafe on the Square in Corydon, Indiana, but another of our merry band has the pictures, and I’m hoping to get her to post a narrative. It will be interesting, if she does, I can assure you….

Halloween on the Square

On Saturday, October 25, 2008, the Southern Indiana Writers participated in Corydon, Indiana’s 200th birthday Halloween on the Square celebration. We wrote ghost stories set in and around Corydon, including seven set at landmark locations around the square. On the afternoon of the 25th, Leah Porter led a Ghost Walk to each of the locations, where volunteers read the story for that location. Listeners were invited–nay, encouraged–to finish up outside Cafe on the Square, where SIW members were waiting to sell copies of GHOSTS: ON THE SQUARE–AND ELSEWHERE and other SIW anthologies.

Here is SIW member Joanna Foreman’s report, along with pictures:

The Ghost walk began on time at 4PM with Leah and her staff having already situated themselves at the settings. They had first gone off into the crowd to drum up business ahead-of-time. Leah led the group (writers Joanna, Bonnie, Teddi, Glenda and Ardis in tow, along with quite a few others. I forgot to count. The crowd traveled to each location where the stories were read, and we ended at Star Cleaners. Leah had the readers prepared by giving them hard copies of the stories, and they each had a stool to sit on, and an easel with a nice sign with the story name and the author on it. Trick-or-treat candy was given out after the readings at some of the locations. The woman who narrated Joy’s story was so dramatic, the audience shivered with delight! That lady was a real actress, although in reality she teaches fourth grade.

I set up at Noon with Craig’s help (Thank God for him!) and the guy in Magdalena’s offered the sidewalk if we’d prefer. It was warm then, so we set up there. Then a cloud-cover came, wind began to blow, and everyone else came in around 1:00 with more table and chairs, books, etc…and we had all the books laid out with a good turn-out as far as sales go. We opted not to set up inside due to the good visibility we were having, and lots of people were coming over to our table all the time. We sold probably 10 or 11 Ghost books, and a few re-prints, maybe 3? I’m not sure. The entire thing was a fabulous success as far as I’m concerned. Sounds like we had a successful weekend all the way around. GO US!

Oy

Joanna

Nashville Signing

Five members of Southern Indiana Writers went up to Nashville, Indiana in Brown County to sign and sell books at The Book Loft: Joanna Foreman (driver), Marian Allen, T. Lee Harris, Joy Kirchgessner and Bonnie Abraham. Those who couldn’t attend signed GHOSTS: ON THE SQUARE–AND ELSEWHERE at the meeting before the trip.

One of the churches was having a street festival beginning right next door to The Book Loft. One might hope that this would draw foot traffic into the store, but one would be wrong. Lured by free music, face painting, silent auctions, cheap food, jumble sales and books by the box, people passed us in droves. Joy and Joanna stood outside and shilled, passing out the GORGEOUS brochures that Joanna produced, and we did get some customers. Under the circumstances, we were not displeased, and we had fun, as always. Met a lot of really nice and interesting people, too, which is always a plus for a writer.

Bonnie taught Marian how to make the string figure “The Seagull”, but Marian can’t remember how to do it without Bonnie leading her through it, step by step.

Our next appearance is a split bill: Some of us will be at Corydon’s Halloween on the Square some time on October 24th and T. Lee Harris and Marian Allen will be in Muncie at the mystery convention Magna cum Murder on October 24-26.

Context

We did our thing at Context in Columbus, Ohio. Here is a report, cribbed from another blog Webmaster Allen does:

We arrived on Friday and went to the interview with the Dead Body Guy, which was a total hoot (more details were posted last weekend).

T. Lee Harris was then on a panel called WRITING MODERN VAMPIRES with Tanya Huff and Mark Evans. Seems like there was somebody else on there, too, but those are the only ones listed in the program book. (For those who have never been to a science fiction convention, who is on the panel — and what the panel is once it starts — does not always correspond exactly to what is announced. Stuff happens.) Some thought vampires should be inhuman monsters, and that humanizing vampires has … er … taken the bite out of the horror. Others thought that is is precisely the dilemma of being a human with an inhuman hunger that IS horrible. So that was that panel. Interesting.

Southern Indiana Writers had a reading after that, but we were placed next door to a raucous wine and cheese party open to the public, so guess where everybody went? Not to hear people reading stories, that’s for sure! Still, we had a good time sitting around talking story.

We went back to the room and drank some Mango Blush Wine that tasted like wombat piss–which is only a metaphor, none of us being willing to admit having ever had wombat piss.

And so to bed.

On Saturday, we went to a panel called GREAT MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS, which was rather pointless but enjoyable. We learned that some excellent music has always been written for soundtracks (in this case, specifically sf/fantasy/horror movies), which you seldom remember hearing because the best soundtracks are mostly unobtrusive.

After that, Glenda Mills and Marian Allen <waves> were on a panel called GENRE LABELS with Deena Fisher, Gary Frank, S. Andrew Swan, Nick Mamatas and Tracy Chowdhury. We talked about how genre labels (mystery, horror, romance) are being blurred more and more. There were panels on forensics and sex in literature at this convention, as well as science and fantasy. I suppose I should say “as well as OTHER forms of science and fantasy….”

Next, we went to a panel on WORKING WITH SMALL PUBLISHERS which was MOST interesting. After I have time to hit some web sites, I’ll post some URLs. Small publishers are still somewhat disrespected by the majors, but they put out some fabulous work. This is small presses, not self-publish presses, which also may put out some good-looking product but do no editorial oversight and little if any promotion. Some small presses are moving into the “medium press”, and it’s all exciting. They usually work with a Print On Demand business model, meaning that they don’t have to invest nearly as much as an offset press publisher, and so can take more risks. They aren’t afraid to produce a small book or a large book by an unknown author. Great panel.

We went to a panel on writers groups given by the Indiana Horror Writers, including Sara Larson. The consensus is that some groups are good for some people and some groups are bad for some people. Enjoyable, and I think it was useful for people who are thinking about joining or starting a group.

In the evening, Marian Allen <waves> was on REGIONAL F/H/SF with Mark Evans and Phoebe Wray. We talked about using regional details to ground your character or action, about really USING the details rather than using them for showing off how much you know or how well you’ve researched. We pointed out that even fantasy and science fiction take place SOMEWHERE–it takes place in a specific place or series of specific places, even if the place is imaginary. All politics is local, and all fiction is regional.

Sara Larson invited everybody to a birthday party for a member of the IHW, and we went. Nobody else was there, so we got to talk to Sara and her husband. Sara and I “know” each other through the Indiana Writers Connection, a Yahoo Group email list. We also ran into Mary from the Cincinnati Writers’ Project. T. Lee Harris has produced their new anthology for them, and she’s done a dynamite job, as always! We had chocolate cake at the party, which is always good.

Back in the room, we passed on the wombat piss and drank chablis instead.

And so to bed.

On Sunday, T. Lee Harris was on a panel on STRONG WOMEN CHARACTERS with eleventy-seven other writers. At the same time, Glenda Mills and Marian Allen <waves> were on SELF-EDITING with John Dalmas and Fran Friel. Dalmas suggested proofreading by printing out your story and shuffling the pages so you read the narrative out of order and don’t get so caught up in the story you miss errors. Friel suggested changing the font from the one you usually use, again in order to SEE the letters and words and not see what you MEANT to type. Very useful.

Checkout and home. As I said yesterday, I got home to a dead refrigerator and an irritated husband, but I got to take a shower. I took showers over the weekend, but I had forgotten my razor and didn’t remember I had forgotten it until I got ready to shave under my arms. By the time I got home, I felt like I was smuggling kittens.

All in all, it was a great convention. Everybody was courteous and helpful: the staff, the panelists, the other attendees. Nobody grandstanding or showboating or deluding themselves into ego trips nobody else was taking with them. We intend to go in 2009. Two thumbs up.