by jphilo | Apr 5, 2024 | See Jane Dance!, See Jane Dig!, See Jane Run!, See Jane Sing!
“I’d like to see Jane fix this,” I muttered after opening the first of the 20 book merch mugs* I ordered in advance of summer speaking events and spotted my proofreading error.
Do you see it too?
As a former teacher who corrected enough papers to kill dozens of trees and drained oodles of red pens, I deserve no mercy…at least not from past students.**
In my own defense, I have only two things to say:
- I ordered them while in the grips of a raging sinus infection that the second round of antibiotics I’m currently on will hopefully work.
- I actually caught and corrected the error, but neglected to click “save” before placing the order.***
After staring at the mugs in dismay for a couple minutes, visions of red pens danced in my sinus-fogged head. “Hiram,” I asked my husband, “is the pack of multicolored Sharpies you bought still around somewhere?”
As a matter of fact, they were in his desk.
I plucked out the red Sharpie, picked up a mug, and did this:
Do you think they can be sold at book events if I inscribe each mug with whatever red pen message the buyer requests…within reason of course? Or use them as door prizes? I’d love to hear your suggestions, too, so leave them in the comment box.
*The mugs in the picture are all identical. They are arranged at different angles to show the 4 different covers that circle each mug.
**Those students, now adults with their own kids and grandkids, are very forgiving people. After I posted a picture of the errant mugs on Facebook, several of them wanted to know how to order them.
***The error has been corrected for a second time, and the save button clicked for the first time. Sigh!
by jphilo | Feb 1, 2024 | Reviews, See Jane Dance!, See Jane Run!, See Jane Sing!
See Jane Run! is close to 50 Amazon reviews. So close, in fact, I’m breaking out my dance moves and choreographing a little something to record on video when the milestone is reached. 50 reviews, by the way, is when Amazon sits up, takes notice, and begin to assist authors and publishers in promoting their books. It’s a big deal. So how close is See Jane Run! to 50?
Drum roll please……
As of today, See Jane Run! is sitting at 42 positive reviews.
If my math fact memory serves, only 8 more reviews until spunky Jane can grab the Amazon promotion ring. I know more than 8 people who haven’t yet reviewed the book have read and liked it. If you’re one of those people, I’m on my knees begging you to write and post your review on Amazon. Just go to See Jane Run! on Amazon, scroll down and click on the white “Leave a Customer Review” (it’s on the left hand side beneath the starred ranking graph), and Amazon will walk you through the process.
I promise to post a Facebook video of me doing a happy dance when the big 5-0 is reached.
In case you’re wondering, See Jane Sing! has 31 reviews and See Jane Dance! has 24. The See Jane Dance! number delighted me considering I haven’t been able to promote it much due to health issues that began shortly after it was released. Once again, I am down on my knees begging for reviews. Once again I promise to post a happy dance video when those books reach the magic number too.
Also my dance moves are epic. You don’t want to miss them.
by jphilo | Dec 31, 2022 | Mystery Update, See Jane Dance!, See Jane Dig!, See Jane Run!, See Jane Sing!
Introducing the See Jane Run Advisory Board gives me great pleasure. The board’s formation came about when the 7 and 4-year-old grandchildren were back seat passengers in our car a few days after Christmas, 2022. Hiram was driving so I directed all my attention to the following conversation. It began when the 7-year-old became curious about the box on the seat between him and his sister. It contained copies of See Jane Run! and See Jane Sing!. The 7-year-old opened the box and used his burgeoning reading skills to read the titles, emphasis on burgeoning as you’ll see below.
“Is Seejane the girl on the front of these books?” he asked.
“Yes, but since there’s a space between ‘See’ and ‘Jane’ it’s pronounced ‘See Jane.'” I explained.
“Oh, I see. Jane is the girl. Why are there different covers?”
“Because they’re two different stories. The first is See Jane Run! and the second is See Jane Sing!”
“What kind of books are they?”
“They’re mysteries. Jane catches bad guys.” I added a bunch more, but all of you have heard the spiel, so there’s no need to subject you to it again.
The 4-year-old piped up. “Are you going to write more of these books?”
I told them about the upcoming titles, See Jane Dance! and See Jane Dig! With that the floodgates of their imaginations burst wide open.
“Grammy, you should write See Jane Christmas!” said the 7-year-old.
“That’s a great idea, and there’s actually a Christmas program in See Jane Sing!”
Back to the 4-year-old. “How about See Jane Halloween! instead?”
“I have a better idea,” said the 7-year-old. “See Jane Underground! where they go to London and catch bad guys in the underground subway.”
“Or See Jane Invisible Hole! where they dig a hole and it’s invisible and Jane jumps in and the bad guys don’t see it and they fall in…”
The 4-year-old went on and on, but I missed the gist of her plot line because my mind was on how anyone would see Jane do anything in an invisible hole.
“Grammy,” interrupted the 7-year-old. “You could make Jane statues to sell. And tee-shirts.”
“And earrings,” added the 4-year-old. “And you could give Jane a sword and a shield and a gun to shoot bad guys,”
“Jane doesn’t like guns. She doesn’t own one.”
The 4-year-old gasped and after a dramatic pause proclaimed. “You could write See Jane Freeze! and Elsa from Frozen could freeze the bad guys.”
“How would you two like to be members of the See Jane Advisory Board? I’ll serve treats at meetings.”
“Yes,” they shouted as my husband pulled into the garage.
That, dear reader, is the humble beginning of the See Jane Advisory Board. Leave a comment if you’d like to join the team. I’m not sure how much we’ll get done at our meetings. However, I can assure you that our gatherings will be entertaining and there will be treats!
by jphilo | Jul 28, 2022 | Mystery Update, See Jane Run!
See Jane Run! is gaining steam, and today’s post provides an update of what’s heating things up, what’s going on behind the scenes, and fun stuff to come.
Amazon reviews and ratings. Look at those numbers––25 Amazon reviews! That means Jane is halfway to 50, the magic number that will make Amazon algorithms sit up, take notice, and promote the book to a wider audience. See Jane Run! also has 52 ratings. While ratings don’t influence the algorithms like reviews do, they show that the book’s being read. That’s good news!
If everyone who rated See Jane Run! could be persuaded to write and post a review, it would reach the magic number in no time. And if there were reviews from everyone who’s read the book, imagine what that would do. I’ll tell you one thing that would happen. I’d record myself doing a happy dance and post it on social media. You heard it here first.
See Jane Run! audiobook is in production. How cool is that? I met with the voice artist a few weeks ago to discuss pronunciations, dialects, and such. She happens to be my niece who has speech communication and drama training. She teaches drama and directs plays in a large high school in the Des Moines Metro. Not only does she have the same midwestern speech patterns as Jane, she also has the teacher voice. I can’t wait to hear what she does with the narration.
The Harding County Fair. In a previous post, I wrote about our plans to attend the Harding County Fair this summer. (See Jane Run!’s Tipperary County is modeled after Harding County.) Those plans are complete, and we are looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and showing off See Jane Run!. We’ll take oodles of pictures to show off the amazing beauty of the place where we once lived. I’ll be recording audio of people in the area to share with the voice artist and doing research for future books. It’s gonna be so much fun!
See Jane Run! is gaining steam and so is the entire West River Mystery Series. Stay tuned for updates about what’s happening with future books in the series.
by jphilo | Jul 8, 2022 | See Jane Run!
Though I appear to be talking here, I’m actually reading an excerpt from See Jane Run! Were it not for the words on the page, I would have been speechless.
The See Jane Run! book launch party left me speechless. That’s saying something since I’m rarely at a loss for words of either the spoken or written variety.
Every time I sit down to write a post about it, a flood of emotions and memories of the day wash my words away. And yet, the day deserves to be shared. A record needs to be made. Now. So in lieu of paragraphs full of words, here are pictures and short captions to give you a flavor of the day.
The four of us became friends in ninth grade and remain friends to this day.
To my right is a former country school student, her daughter, and my student’s mother who was our son’s first day care provider.
She was in high school when we met. She helped in my third grade classroom a few hours every week for two years. Now she’s in education, too.
She’s been taking my author head shots since 2003.
A former third grade student who stopped by to buy the book for his wife, who loves to read.
This sweet woman was a one-on-one para in my classroom, but she was there for every child who needed assistance and calm during the day.
Do you know what it means when your former principal comes to you book party and says he’s proud of you?
These people made teaching at Boone Community Schools in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s an absolute joy.
When I left teaching, this high school English teacher volunteered to edit my first manuscript. She said I was a good writer. I held onto that statement through years of rejection letters!
She has prayed for my writing and ministry for years. What a blessing she remains to this day.
Meet my book launch party team. Their vision was the secret sauce for the party’s success.
My husband Hiram and me with Ann and Terry Stark, the owners of Chocolaterie Stam. The Stam proved to be a perfect venue and the Starks were perfect hosts. Fun fact: Hiram and Ann worked together at Mary Greeley Hospital for years.
The box of books showed up 7 hours late and were all sold before they arrived.
Now you can see why the See Jane Run! book launch party left me speechless.
by jphilo | Jun 3, 2022 | See Jane Run!
See Jane and Jolene saying ay yai yai yai yai? Do you know why they’re saying it? Because the release date for See Jane Run! is only days away.
Jolene’s not sure she’s ready to hear from people who don’t like her baby.
Jane’s not sure she’s ready for people to get to know her.
As a result, they’ve resorted to making faces at each other while fiddling with their glasses.
Juvenile behaviors to be sure.
Or maybe nervous habits.
Whatever the case, there’s only one thing to say about the situation…ay yai yai yai yai!
