London Calling

Re: Travel What a week. One minute I'm in a four vehicle smash-up and the next, well I'm off to London for a long weekend. Quite unexpected really. My friend H., a Brit, is off to celebrate her Mum's birthday in London and at the last minute, I'm going too. Me. Just me. A third of my next novel revolves around London so a little refresher was in order anyway. I got to live in London for six months several years ago and I've been back with my hubby and child for a two week visit but I've never been to London with just the girls. Can't wait. Very supportive of my husband after his car got smunched. Oh, and I have an assignment. Sticks of Fire's new guest reporter (moi) has been asked to watch for Tampa links whilst abroad. Aye, aye. Cheerio, Tampa.

How Does He Do It?

Re: Blogs I'm new to blogging (obviously I guess). I haven't told anybody about my blog just yet although I did put up a link from my website at www.wendyboucher.com. Curiously enough, Tommy from Sticks Of Fire (a Weekly Planet pick and one of my faves) found my blog anyway. Could it be that he can tell when somebody's put up a link to his site? Tommy? Are you out there? Is Big Brother watching me? Do you have the technology? Can you tell me how?

Why Wait?

Re: Family Little Missy (6 1/2) said recently: "I'm going to get married someday so I might as well start liking boys now." stamp, stamp, stamp ... That's the sound of me running from the room screaming (silently) Okay, I didn't run and I didn't scream and I didn't laugh in spite of the various urges. I decided to be encouraging because this is the same girl who last week decided that she didn't love G. anymore because he'd said to her, "Your loving me is ruining my life." Admit it, you would have been crushed in her situation. She was simply matter-of-fact. She brushed off her hands and thought about her next love candidate. Watch out boys.

A New Review of Parvenue

Re: Author stuff Gabi Lorino, a fabulous judge of great literature and a fellow local author, just sent me this review. How great! Read the review and go check out her site. Book Review for Parvenue Throws a Party by Wendy Boucher The angst and awkwardness we know as preteens can follow us well into adulthood, as Wendy Boucher’s heroine, Janice Darcy, shows in “Parvenue Throws a Party.”Janice knows what it’s like to be on the outside, looking in. She’s never really belonged to the glittering circles that she’s admired, although she has hung out on the fringes enough to learn their rules and ways. Armed with this information, she becomes a “consultant” to newcomers in the SOK (South of Kennedy) wonderland. When her attempts to mix with these SOK types lead to more and more embarrassing party debacles, she has to reassess her priorities and decide what’s really important! Told in an easy and fun style, we get to see Janice reevaluate her life and choose substance over glitter. -Gabi Lorino, author of “The Independent Woman’s Guide to Life”

A Little History

re: Publishing Always a can-do kind of girl, I set out this year with a resolution to get Parvenue Throws A Party into print. I had previously let a very nice agent take a look at it, read it several times and after keeping me on pins and needles for a LOOOONG time (or so it seemed), ultimately pass on the project. Then I let a very nice editor at a very nice publishing company take a look at it, hold on to it for a LOOOONG time (or so it seemed), and ultimately pass on it because it was just a little too sarcastic for her imprint. Sarcastic? Who me? So rather than hit the four hundred zillion other agents and publishers up for a look-see only to die a shriveled and unpublished old hag at age 96, I decided to publish the darn thing myself. I would say the war on publishing officially began in February when I incorporated Hoyden Press, LLC. Prior to that, I spent some time deciding that Print-on-Demand wasn't going to work for me. (A story for another day, I promise.) Some definitions: A "parvenue" is an upstart in the bad sense, somebody who makes a claim of importance without having earned it. There was another lesson for me here too. I put the definition, "A female upstart" on the cover of my book which is entirely correct. But it turns out that on the street and in real life, the word "upstart" has developed a positive connotation. Oops. Nobody told me or Merriam Webster. Anyway, calling somebody a parvenue is a bit of a put-down. Finally, a "Hoyden" is a girl who behaves boisterously. Enough said.

Another victory in the war

I found out yesterday that Barnes & Noble has put my book in their warehouses. Wowee! That means it is easily available to any B&N store in the universe. And South Tampa B&N is going to keep my book in stock for awhile. Wowee number two.

I was just in a car wreck

Re: Me This afternoon, a red car hit a black car which hit me right into the back of a city bus. No obvious injuries except to the cars. Mine is probably totalled. Although it was really my husband's car. And wouldn't you just know it. I've been looking for any excuse to dump my old Mom-van for a hybrid Prius and today I happened to be driving Hubby's car, a practically brand new luxury sedan. So he'll get a new new car and I'm still stuck with the Mom-van. ugh. The interesting thing is that after the accident, I realized that I had no idea what I should do. Call the cops? Call my insurance company? Cry? I opted for calling my husband because somebody else was calling the cops. And I learned that one should never travel without a cell phone. Thank you Verizon!

Re Author and Publi

Re:  Author and Publisher Stuff

On Friday night I was the privileged guest of a most awesome book club in Pinellas County.  I’ve visited a few book clubs now and it’s always fun – if you have a book club, feel free to read my book and invite me to chat.  I love it.  This group was especially dynamic and they even gave me a present.  Boy do I feel like a big shot.  It made up for my frustrations earlier in the day.

Note change from Author hat to Publisher hat.

On the same day that I filled an order for a bunch of books to one of my book distributor’s warehouses, that same warehouse inexplicably returned five books.  My book is made from great quality paper stock but even the best doesn’t endure multiple mailings all that well.  And as much as I enjoy paying a fortune to ship my books from state to state, I don’t wish to do it over and over for no apparent reason.  This morning I spoke with my buyer (a super nice woman that actually returns phone calls) and she had no idea why the return happened.  She shows demand for books from that warehouse.  Anyway, she said she would place a magic spell on the computer so that the warehouses can’t return any of my books prior to January 1st.  Another battle won in the war on publishing.

Re: Family

A conversation today between me and Little Missy about learning to ride a bike (She's six). Me: "Sometimes things seem scary when you haven't learned how to do them well yet. Remember when you were afraid to climb on the playground equipment? Then you learned how and now you think it's really fun." Little Missy: "So?" Me: "So when you learn how to ride a bike properly, you'll think it's fun." Little Missy: "And when you learn how to poke your thumb with a needle properly, you'll think that's fun." Pause, "And then you'll learn how to eat grass properly, and that will be fun too."

Re: Me

I have been informed that any self-respecting author these days has a blog. Never one to sneeze at shameless self promotion, I am offering up my attempt at a blog. Going forward, I expect to write about 1) my book, my travel writing, and all things authorly 2) my family because in a pinch, my six-year-old always offers up material and 3) anything else that comes to mind. Before I even get started, let me link you to a few of my favorite blogs so far: Sticks of Fire , Tampa Book Buzz , and The Mommy Blog. I swear to you, I read those blogs every single day. I also read a lot of books and at least one newspaper every day. My favorite book that I've read lately is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. And that makes me think of a funny anecdote. I'm at a writers conference and one of my favorite authors, Margaret Atwood, is the keynote speaker. She's a small woman with a shawl and she sat as she spoke, the microphone aimed down from the nearby podium. Much to my surprise, she's a laugh riot. She has a slow, dry delivery and a Canadian sense of humor. I was reminded at the time about my similar surprise the year Salman Rushdie gave the keynote address. He was funny too. Fast forward to me standing at the end of the book signing line clutching my copy of Oryx and Crake and getting sweaty palms about meeting one of my author heroes. It's finally my turn and being me, I get tongue-tied and star-struck and blurt out to Ms. Atwood, "You are funnier than Salman Rushdie." Imagine the look on her face, not having had any context given for the comment. She actually made some sort of reply but by then the sound of blood rushing in my ears drowned out all sound. I just pushed my book across the table, got my autograph and skulked away. Remind me to tell you about other celebrity run-ins sometime. Ciao.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3 . . .

This post is just a simple test of my new blog. If you were so lucky as to stumble across this site, then WELCOME!