THANK YOU!

Although sales don't really matter to the person who just enjoys the creative process, it does indicate that enough people have an interest to buy. So, I want to say thank you to those of you who have purchased the print or Kindle version of the book. In the first month, 350 copies were sold -- not even close for the half-million needed in the first 90 days to declare it a best-seller, but not half-bad for little ole me who wrote and published it just for fun! :-) I'm hoping to get 1,000 sold by the end of the year, which might entice a bigger publisher to pick it up. If not, I'm happily on to the next story. In the meantime, keep telling your friends about it and write a review on Amazon.com or Goodreads if you have read the book (good or bad). Life is good.

DAWGS AND GATORS

In the original draft of the book, I had the villain, Lance Eddy, sport a Georgia Bulldogs emblem in the back of his big red truck, and my husband had a fit! "That kind of guy would never be a Bulldog alumnus," he insisted. He is the one who encouraged me to make it a Gator emblem instead (sorry Gator fans:). So, I wove it into the story that Eddy's father (who the son despised) was a die-hard Georgia fan and the son displayed the Gator emblem for no other reason but to get under his dad's skin (which was typical for their relationship). Just thought I would let you know the history in case I begin to get hate mail from those of you who love the Gators -- don't take it personal. My marriage has to be a priority, though. :-)

THE UNMOVABLE DR. PIERCE

I have to say it was fun (and fairly easy) writing the part of Dr. Sonya Pierce, as Julia's therapist. Being a therapist myself, I often wonder how my clients perceive me and they sometimes tell me of their frustrations with me as I sit and listen and allow for the long silences. I wanted to write about Dr. Pierce in an authentic way -- unmovable, professional, unassuming and challenging. But I also knew from the beginning that Julia would pull the wool over her eyes because that is often the reality of therapy. I know for a fact that many of my clients don't tell me what is really going on because they are so insecure, so desperate, and so wanting me to like them, that the truth seems to threaten our relationship. Even though I might say (several times) that the reason you pay a therapist is so that they can be the manager of the "laboratory" we are creating together in the room -- and that it is my job to assess our relationship in a way that informs me about their outside relationships -- they still try to manage me and us (which is also informative, by the way:). If things go well, they will begin to tell me the truth several sessions in, but it often seems that by the time we get close, they have been scared away, and sometimes they come back after several weeks or months when they are braver. Regardless of how it happens, therapy is a difficult process for anyone and therapists can only respond to what is brought to them -- we can't make change happen without permission. In that way, I love Sonya Pierce because she reflects my frustrations as well as a clear understanding of my limitations. And I love how Julia resists her and even believes she's got her fooled, even though any therapist who reads it will understand the difficult dance.
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THE MYSTERY OF PROMOTION

I knew that promoting this book was going to be a giant task, which is increasingly the author's job in this competitive market. It used to be that authors who were privileged enough to snare a publisher could relax after publication and let the publisher take over in getting the word and book out into the market. Those days are over. Anyone can write a book and publishers are only going to invest time and money in well-known authors. The unknowns are in charge of getting known. So, I set out on this journey thinking I had an edge because I have a background in journalism and public relations. Therapists are typically not promotion savvy, simply because we tend to be more introverted than extroverted. I was lucky enough to be born with a good balance of both, so I'm not afraid to promote something I believe in, although I have a really hard time promoting in person and receiving compliments. So, I expected that social media would be a comfortable place for me to promote. I had no idea how many options there would be and how hard it would be to know where to devote my time. One aspect of my personality is that I don't like to have too many choices. I'm not one to research for months before I buy a car. I'd rather go to a car lot and be told I had to choose from one of the five cars in front of me. I do better with less choices. Social media, then, does NOT lend itself well to my personality. I get easily overwhelmed by the possibilities and not knowing whether or not to invest money, time or both in getting the word out. I received some good advice early on to focus only on a couple of outlets, which I have tried to do: Facebook, Twitter, Blogging and YouTube. I have done that, but am somewhat disappointed with the results. Eventually, word of mouth has to do what Malcolm Gladwell termed "The Tipping Point" (great book by the way). It drives me crazy to not know where the tipping point is...I just know one exists and I have to keep promoting until it happens (or not). Any advice readers have for me would be greatly appreciated! Truth be known, I would rather just concentrate on my next book, which I have started, but am having trouble devoting enough time to it because of this unwieldy and unrelenting idea of promotion. Yes, I know that the creative process is what really matters and I must do it simply because I love it or it will just feel like work. Yet, creativity is not just about the joy one receives from the process of creating, but the other half of that is the joy in having others experience it. It's a tough balance to achieve.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Authors, including myself, like to come up with catchy, gitchy names for characters that will be memorable (and sometimes hard to pronounce:). When I was contemplating the name for my heroine (Julia Olwen) and her "cousin" (Celeste Edmund), I simply did an internet search to try to match the meaning of the name to the character traits. And voila, they were christened. Olwen is of Welsh origin and its meaning is "white footprint." According to legend, a beautiful maiden named Olwen was so gentle and fragile that white lilies would grow in her footprints. The name Julia signifies youthfulness. Obviously, I wanted her name to belie her thoughts and plan for revenge. Celeste Edmund was equally honorable as a character, but I wanted her to be stronger and more self-assured. Celeste means "heavenly" and the sir name Edmund is of Old English origin, meaning "rich protector." So, how did Nathan Davis get his name? I liked it. Nathan sounded strong to me and I stole his last name from a character my husband was using in a book he was working on. He says he doesn't remember, but we were sitting on the couch and I said I needed a common, Southern last name for my Sheriff and, as he was staring at the television, he said, "Davis. I like Davis." So, Davis it was. Later on (like months later), he said very possessively, "Hey that's the last name of my character." Don't you love how men don't really listen when their wives are talking? So, he will just have to pick another name if he ever gets around to finishing his novel! Nathan Lee Davis. It's strong, southern and simple. Just like Nathan. Actually, just like my husband.

MY FAVORITE EXCERPT

My favorite scene in the book is when Nathan and Sally get together for their awkward dinner. I thought I'd put an excerpt here to entice those of you who haven't read the book yet, to go get it! I love the chemistry between them, even thought it's not lasting. This comes from my years of dating (unsuccessfully) before I met my husband. I don't ever plan on doing that again! Enjoy.....

Montovani’s was a small hole-in-the-wall establishment in downtown Regal, run by a local Italian family who was rumored to have Mafia ties, but Nathan just chalked that up to small-town boredom looking for drama. He found them to be honest, hard-working people who could make a lasagna to die for.

He arrived a few minutes before Sally, and secured a table near a street-side window. He considered sitting on the patio, but it was a humid evening, so he decided an indoor table was best. The tables were covered with traditional red and white checkered tablecloths and every chair in the restaurant seemed to be different, which gave the place a flea market look, but its eclectic style created a quaint, comfortable atmosphere. Nathan wasn’t much for fancy places and there weren’t any of those, as far as he knew, in Regal. A plump young dark-haired woman came by to take his drink order. Nathan ordered the house red. He knew nothing about wine, but he figured it wouldn’t look very sophisticated to Sally if he was sitting there with a beer.

Nathan looked up from the menu and saw Sally walk in and say a few words to the hostess, who directed her to Nathan’s table. He rose from his chair to greet her.

“Well, hello, Ms. Tate.” Nathan’s eyes lit up with approval. She was wearing a snug black skirt and satin blouse.

“Hello yourself Sheriff Davis,” Sally put out her hand to shake his. He took it into his and patted it with his left hand.

“You look stunning, I must say. And no need for the formal sheriff stuff. Nathan is fine with me.” He pulled out a chair for her to be seated next to him and helped her scoot it close to the table.

“Well, thank you…Nathan.” Sally hesitated as if the word was foreign to her. “This place is so cute. I wouldn’t have pegged you as the romantic type.” 

“Now, wait a minute…don’t go gettin’ any wild ideas about me. But I do have some class, especially when it comes to beautiful women.” His white smile stretched from ear to ear.

“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Sally blushed a little as she picked up a menu. “What’s your favorite dish here?”

“Definitely the four-cheese lasagna. But I don’t think you can get a bad meal here – at least that’s what I hear. I always get the lasagna.” Nathan hated admitting his propensity for boring routines.

“I could have figured that about you. When ya find a good thing, stick with it. Why venture out, right?”

“I guess…I’m not sure if you think that’s a positive or not.” Nathan was peering over his reading glasses like an old man assessing his grandchild. With self-awareness, he pulled off his glasses and put the menu down, realizing he really had no need to look at it. 

“It wasn’t meant to be either one. I just think I know your type.” She was smiling playfully while reading the menu. 

“And what, pray tell, do you think my type is?”

She laid the menu down to answer his question without distraction.

“I would say Nathan Davis is a rule follower, a facilitator of justice, freedom and the American way. There is a right way and wrong way to do things, and once he knows what is right, there is no need to go looking for trouble. Just do the right thing and everybody will be the better for it.” 

She stopped to get his assessment and folded her hands in front of her in a confident gesture.

“Damn, girl,” Nathan joked. “You hit the nail on the head and aren’t you so proud to know it?”

“Yeah, well, you’re not that tough to figure out. It’s quite attractive, and even refreshing in some ways. You know…the protector and hero every girl wants to rescue her from life’s dragons.” 

“Sounds like there’s a history there, but I won’t ask you to reveal it just yet. So, wanna know what I think of Miss Tater Tot?”

“Jeez, Nathan, I wish you wouldn’t do that…it’s so…so countrified.”

“Yeah, and I’m a country boy,” Nathan began to laugh. “And I do it mostly because it annoys the heck out of you.”

“Okay, okay. I’m dying to know what you think you know about me.” Sally had picked up the menu again to look it over.

“Let’s see. Sally Tate is a country girl at heart, turned Atlanta jet-setter, who doesn’t like to be told how things really are. She likes to fantasize about how things could be. So, she gets offended by comments that aren’t so politically correct, even if they come from a hero like me.” He softened his voice for effect. “But deep down, she likes the safety of someone who tells the truth, even if it’s a little scary.” His eyes softened and as they did, she melted into them as she looked up from the menu. For a moment, she was silent, as if she had been undressed, hoping not to call attention to herself.

“How’d I do?” Nathan refused to take his eyes off of hers.

“Fair to midlin’…” She was not going to admit he was spot on.

“Fair to what?” Nathan looked confused.

“You know, fair to midling…so, so…almost there, but not quite. It’s a Midwest saying.”

“We don’t talk like that down here, Missy.” Nathan was exaggerating his southern accent, while letting her off the hook for not admitting he was right about her.

Sally laughed at his fake drawl, which was interrupted by the waitress who asked for her drink order.

“I’ll try the Malbec, thank you.” 

“Are you ready to order?” The waitress inquired politely.

“Give us a few minutes to chat over our wine first, if you don’t mind.” Nathan was enjoying Sally’s company and didn’t want to be bothered with the food details yet.

“Nice,” acknowledged Sally. “I had no idea you would know how to conduct yourself in such a chivalrous manner. You just took charge there, didn’t you?”

“I invited you, so it’s my party tonight.” 

“Okay, I’ll accept that.  Soooo, was there another reason we were meeting tonight or did you just want to harass me about my Midwest colloquialisms?” 

Nathan knew that was a trick question to get him to commit that this was either a date or a business meeting. He was not going to reveal himself that easily.

“My first goal was to tease and harass you about many things, which I’m not done with, by the way. And my second purpose was to pick your brain about Clyde Eddy.” 

“Well, there is a lot to tell. Have you got all night?” She didn’t seem to want the flirting to end.

Nathan cleared his throat on purpose, to let her know he wasn’t sure how to answer that question.

“Is that an invitation?” He felt like he had just achieved a checkmate. She was cornered now.

She began to respond with a look of sarcasm when Nathan’s cell phone rang with the ring tone he used for urgent calls. Sally stopped in mid-sentence when he looked down at his phone.

Nathan looked up at her. “I need to get this. Do you mind?”

“Of course not, go ahead.” Sally took another sip of her wine.

It was Tommy reporting that the lab was able to match Lance Eddy’s truck tires to the tire tracks at the scene and that the gun found in Eddy’s home was registered in Julia Olwen’s name.

“Ya don’t say,” Nathan responded with reserve in front of Sally, although he wanted to jump up and say hot damn! “Okay. Get the warrant and I’ll meet you at his place in about an hour.” Tommy then told Nathan that Eddy was at a family gathering at his mother’s home. “That complicates things a little,” Sally heard Nathan reply, “but we’ll figure it out. Thanks, Buddy.” Nathan ended the call, looking like the Cheshire cat.

Sally looked confused.

“Don’t tell me you are gonna cut out on me again. I’m starting to get a complex, Nathan Davis.” 

Nathan smiled like a ten-year-old on Christmas morning.

“Do you want an exclusive?”

“What?”

“Do you want first dibs on the story of the week?”

THE OMNISCIENT VOICE

In the novel, I decided to write in an omniscient voice, meaning that several people's thoughts were being expressed, not just one character or the main characters. Some of my reviewers had a hard time with that, saying that it would be confusing to the reader. So, at one point, I actually went back through the manuscript and tried to remove the thoughts of Tommy, Dot, Mrs. Timko and even Tish at the diner. But I just wasn't happy with the emptiness it created. Because of the emotional nature of the back story -- a child who had been murdered without justice, and now possibly his mother -- I wanted to show that the whole community was affected by it and the minor characters' voices somehow seemed important to the story as a whole, even in simple ways. Yes, I had Nathan's secretary patting her hair, wishing she was young enough to snag her boss, or the waitress at the diner resenting Nathan's attraction to Sally. That made them normal and real, and sympathetic characters when they also were commenting on the tragedy the whole town was feeling. Critics are just that -- critics. But I'm the one creating, so I decided to take the creative license and be omniscient because it felt right to me. I just hope my readers agree!

GREAT QUESTION!

I love it when readers ask great questions! My latest favorite is this... What was the point of including the chapter on Centipede (Sheriff Davis' snitch)? I think that comes from hearing numerous stories from my husband's police officer days -- when he was on the fugitive squad and looking for fugitives. Snitches were apparently the key to their success. And as I was formulating Nathan's character, I was thinking of the paradoxical nature of my husband's personality. I know him as this very sweet, honest, honorable man who values the truth and following the rules. Yet, he has told me some very colorful (and devious) stories about using bad guys to get to other bad guys, and I think it is a good way of showing that even good characters must sometimes go to the "dark side" in order to accomplish their ultimate goal. Similarly, Nathan seemed to believe the end justified the means regarding Centipede -- and I wanted to show the reader that he could understand the parallel between his character and Julia's plan to justify her end result. Great question!

BACK TO WORK

Mondays after vacation are always difficult. Even though my vacation last week was spent working on book promotion, it still felt like time off because I was doing it from a cabin in the mountains! Yet, there always remains a longing to get back to the normal routine -- the life that you know you really own. So, tomorrow, I start seeing clients again -- juggling promotion for Already There, working on my new book, and helping people with their inner conflict. Life is definitely interesting, to say the least. At the same time, I have a friend who is battling cancer and another friend who just lost her twin grand-babies. Like Julia reiterates a number of times in the book, sometimes the only way to get through this stuff is to see yourself (and those you love) as already there in that place we are all waiting to get to. Life is not so bad if we can put it into perspective. Onward...and upward!

HOME FROM "VACATION"

Eric and I  just got back from spending five days in the North Georgia mountains. It was his birthday week and he just wanted some down time where no one could reach him, and his birthday wish came true.Me on the other hand? I was thankful for the time I got to launch Already There properly on social media (I could never have done that during a regular work week), but the Kindle problems and trying to figure out how to blog, tweet, post and blab, were a major pain in the you know what. Don't love the promotional part of this, but it's a necessary part of getting the word out. So, we are back home, the problems are fixed, and I will settle back into a week of seeing clients and trying to focus on my regular life. It all worked out very well and I am thankful every day for my husband, my family, and good friends who care about me. In the end, that's all that really matters. Have a great weekend!

TOO MUCH INTROSPECTION?

When I was preparing to publish Already There, I had several people read it for feedback and encouragement. Of course, my mother said she loved it! But I did submit it blindly to two published authors who I thought would be honest in their assessments. I did this through a writing group I belong to and I did not know who the reviewers were and they did not know who I was. In their critiques, one of them said she thought I spent too much time on Julia's introspection. I took that to heart and went back and read the "Julia" chapters, looking for how I might tighten that up a bit. But after talking it through with my husband (bless his heart for listening to my obsessions about the book:), I determined that most of Julia's obsessive thinking or "introspection," if you want to call it that, was a major theme in the book. If I had lost a child in that way, I can't imagine the amount of obsessing I would do. The other author, by the way, was more positive and understanding about Julia's level of introspection. It made me wonder, then, if the author who was more critical had children. If not, I could understand her frustration with Julia going round and round in her head about the murder and the acquittal and the plan for revenge. Ultimately, I went with my gut and let Julia obsess because I wanted her to be real.

AM I JULIA??? YEAH, RIGHT...

I had someone ask me the other day if Julia was patterned after me, as many authors use their first book to work out their own psychological stuff. I laughed when I heard that since I think Julia is who I would like to be, but am clearly not. She's way more sensible than I am! Now, Nathan is definitely patterned after my husband, Eric, who is a former law man and is smart, sweet, and charming just like the character. I think I really wanted to show the world who he is to me -- which is what every woman wants in her man -- a protector and a hero. It's his birthday today, by the way, so happy birthday, honey! I think I went through about five or six edits of the book, and each time, I always smiled at the end, still loving the story, because it is my love story with my special guy. In my next book, Back to Life, I will feature a heroine very much like me -- with all the warts and worn-out parts. I am having fun writing her character since I know so much about her!! More on that later...

THE VIDEO TRAILER EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT...

Click to see it now....

Already There Video Trailer

A LITTLE ABOUT ME (THE BLOGGER)

I am a marriage and family therapist by trade because I love and care about people. I write because what I do is hard. Every day, I hear about pain and suffering, and the occasional victory over that pain, but for the most part it is hard. So, I write because it helps me express all of the pain I absorb, and I hope that in expressing that, I can connect broadly with readers all over in a very intimate way. So, I assume you are reading this because you are interested in what I write -- and I assume you are interested because what I write hits home somehow with you and your heart. We all have pain. We all have opportunity for victory over that pain. Usually, we just need a catalyst to connect the two. I hope what I write is a powerful conductor of the energy that leads you somehow to your own personal victory -- whatever that may be. I enjoy writing to that purpose as much as I hope you enjoy reading it. Love to all of my readers and fans!!!

ALREADY THERE IS OUT!

My novel debuted this past weekend, and I am so thankful for the response. Over 120 views to the video trailer for the book (Click here to see) and increasing sales through the CreateSpace channel (Click here to buy) and Amazon.com and Amazon Kindle. Some people are reporting having difficulty finding it on Amazon by searching the title. I think this is because it is so low on the ratings totem pole right now! So, search by my name ("Diane Dierks") and it will come right to the top. Also, it appears that the Kindle version is not very pleasing to the eye, but that has to do with how I had to format it for the printer, so to those of you using the Kindle version, I hope it's not too distracting. Most who have read the book tell me they were able to pick it up and finish it in 3 days, so I hope everyone will have that kind of experience with it. Let me know what you think through the Facebook page at AlreadyThereNovel or through Twitter@AlreadyThereBuz. Also, the first to review it on Amazon.com will get a free autographed copy of the book from me! Enjoy reading and I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it.