RSS

Tag Archives: Toronto Heliconian Club

On the road again with my Beyond mystery books

22 Nov

Beyond book No. 3

I’m taking my Beyond books on one last in-person promo for this year and then taking a break until into the New Year. Will still be doing social media. It’s just that I don’t like going out and about much in winter weather. And there is a high risk of having to cancel ane event or going to it because of a blizzard, sub-zero temperatures or some other awful winter stuff. I am not a fan of winter – in fact if it would disappear permanently into a black hole I would be the first to cheer.

And I need the time to continue writing my new Beyond mystery novel, which despite all the house issues, sagas and other problems being shoved at me, I am actually back to working on that novel.

So, I’ll put some brief details of the last of the 2018 Beyond events. But first I want to mention some of the unique ways I get these promos.

I have to be thankful that many come to me from outside and I am grateful for them.

There is my Crime Beat Confidential Show that I host bi-monthly on thatchannel.com. The station’s show producer approached me – probably because i had made some appearances as a guest on their Liquid Lunch Show. I get a lot of fun, learning and meeting interesting people who guest on my show. My book character PI Dana Bowman appears at the beginning of each show. And in the one just taped this week, she does the second half of the show interviewing the guest – a private investigator. The show is not taped live and some editing is done, so when it’s up I’ll post the link. Meantime you can watch the other two on thatchannel. com under “Shows” or Google “Crime Beat Confidential and Youtube” and see it posted by the station on Youtube.

As a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the Toronto Heliconian Club, I get a chance to take part in their author readings, book signings at bookstores, libraries, conventions, writers festivals, artistic shows and sales. They send out emails on this looking for us author members to participate and we  have to get back. Now, for some there is a limit of how many participants, but I have been lucky to get in on those – even some out of town. And there it is other members participating in the same event who give me a lift there – sometimes we have a car load of authors heading ouit of town and it is so much fun.

Those are just some examples. My point, beside being grateful, is authors – whether self-published or published by a trade publisher, can benefit by joining an organization that has some literature and/or writer component to help promote their books. And it’s not all  one-sided as by participating you sometimes get the chance to organize the event. And you meet interesting authors and readers. And sell some books. Don’t be all social media and no in-person promo. Sometimes readers like to see the real person and not just see what thay look like, but how they act, how theiy interact,,how they come across in their knowledge about writing, and in my case, just dressing up like my main character and letting her take over.

Beyond Book No. 2

And on that note, I’ll just list the last two events for 2018 and hope those in the Greater Toronto area in Ontario, Canada can make one of these events.

GIFTS FROM THE MUSES-

Saturday, Nov. 24, 11 am to 4 pm.

Toronto Heliconian Club

35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

All my Beyond books – Beyond the Tripping Point, Beyond Blood and Beyond Faith will be on display and for sale at the annual Club show and sale “Gifts from the Muses”  which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 24. There will also be a wall of paintings and photographs, all selling for $100 or less. In addition, members from all sections will sell hand-made products such as unframed art works, cards, books, CDs, jewelry, jams, baked goods, etc. Along with the sale, members of the Music Section will entertain with short musical interludes each hour. This is one of the best multi-disciplinary events in the Club and is so much fun to attend! It is a great opportunity to purchase outstanding gifts for family and friends!
More info on The Toronto Heliconian Club, including a map for their location here

Also at The Heliconian Club

An Evening of Readings of Literature Section Members
·
Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 6:30 PM – 9 PM

Sharon A. Crawford will read excerpts from her Beyond Mystery series novels: Beyond Blood and the latest, Beyond Faith. She is joined by two other Heliconian Club Literature group authors: Ann Elizabeth Carson and Isabel Berchem for this Evening of Readings. Hosted by Christine Arthurs. Refreshments and a cash bar.

Cost: Free for Heliconian Club members and $10. for all others.

Beyond Book No. 1 – the short story collection

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

Advertisement
 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 22, 2018 in Beyond mystery series, Book Promotion, Book Sales, PI Dana Bowman, Public Libraries, Toronto Sisters in Crime, Writing Organizations

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Marketing your book – more ideas learned

17 Nov
The latest Beyond book in the series

The latest Beyond book in the series

Although my Beyond Blood novel is two years old (and yes, the next one is tentatively scheduled to appear just under a year from now), I am still doing PR for it and surprisingly, still for the previous Beyond Book – the short story collection, Beyond the Tripping Point.

I am doing new PR and also adding on to what I have previously done. For example, I have sold copies of my Beyond books at the Toronto Heliconian Club annual pre-Christmas sale of art, books and other creative things in past years. But just selling. This year I am one of the authors from the Literature group reading a short excerpt from our published books (from Beyond Blood for me). There are also music interludes from the Club’s Music Group. More information is in the Gigs and Blog Tours page and also at the Heliconian Club website.

Another new thing here with the Heliconian club is our Literature group held a Dinner and Salon November 8 and I read from one of the short stories – The Body in the Trunk -in Beyond the Tripping Point. And that book came out in fall 2012. But it was suggested a short story excerpt was preferable for that than from a novel, so I complied. Just picked out a funny one and got a lot of laughs and good feedback comments afterwards.

All this can help build future book sales.

I’m also compiling a list of Toronto and York Region libraries where I could do crime fiction presentations/readings and/or teach writing workshops and courses. I already have a very big in with the two library systems having done all of that in the past four (for the fiction books alone) to six years (for the workshops) in many library branches.This past June I started something else – or rather one of the library branches hired me to do – teach a four session (once a week) course on Memoir Writing. From that a librarian at another library branch approached me to do the same next spring and I agreed. So my list is going back to some places I’ve been, but ones I haven’t don so for a year or more and to get gigs for next spring and summer.

This is all for the first two books. Once the third Beyond book is ready with a signed contract, I’ll start doing the library pitch for that one. This time I may do a specific proposal for author readings/presentation – for a specific form which goes out to all the libraries.

Each of these workshops/courses/ presentations/readings presents an opportunity for my Beyond books.

I have also started approaching area writers organization where I have not appeared and snagged one with the Writers and Editors Network (WEN). It is a breakfast one but on a Saturday in April. I am not a morning person, but you can bet I’ll make that extra effort to get there on time.

Two more things, one I’ve learned from experience. If you live where winter can be iffy with weather that can be blizzards, mixed precipitation and the like, you don’t do in-person presentations, readings or teach courses. I have managed to be lucky with teaching workshops in March and even February and evena couple of readings in February. But there have been very iffy ones due to weather in late March. That was the case with the Crime Writers of Canada panel I was on at the Gerrard/Ashdale library the past March. It got put on hold when the weather forecast was mixed precipitation and that’s what we got. The librarian there didn’t want us to cancel but was prepared to wait until the morning of (the panel was in the evening), so I emailed the other four panelists that it might be cancelled. When the librarian phoned me the morning of, she convinced me to not cancel. So I had to phone the four other panelists. It was just rain in the early to late evening and we packed them in to a very lively interactive discussion. The librarian took photos and the close-up on is at the bottom of the home page of my website. The long shot of the audience is at the bottom of this blog post.

Those winter months are for planning, social media PR and writing, writing, writing,.

There is also one more thing I did and I recommend it to anyone trying to promote their books – whether trade published or self-published. Sign up for the free Build Book Buzz weekly newsletter and the much more Sandra Beckwith offers with that. Check out the website for more information. I can’t say enough on how much it has opened my eyes to marketing my books and it isn’t all social media but that is a part of it. There are free webinars offered and…well you can check it out for yourself. And a disclaimer: Sandra Beckwith hasn’t hired me to do publicity. I just like to pass along info about something good to help other authors.

So happy and prosperous book marketing..And oh yes, the usual – click on the Beyond Blood icon at the top and see where it leads you.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

Longshot of the Gerrard Ashdale library CWC presentation in March 2016

Longshot of the Gerrard Ashdale library CWC presentation in March 2016

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 17, 2016 in Author Reading, Beyond Blood, Beyond the Tripping Point, Book Promotion, Public Libraries, Sharon A. Crawford

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Clearing the decks to write your fiction

03 Nov
Clearing the decks to write your fiction

This may be a case of do as I say, not what I do. But the past month and a half I have been inundated with unnecessary crap getting in the way of my fiction writing. A lot of it comes from what I refer to as “outside” – things like house repairs, computer problems, friends and others interrupting during my work time.. Then there are health issues and some things that I have something to do with happening.

Last Thursday Shane, the editor at my publisher’s (Blue Denim Press) came over for us to practice our authors’ skit for the Urban Folk Art Festival (Our skit went very well there and when Shane emails me some of the photos someone else took of us, I’ can post them). We also had a heart-to-heart talk about my third Beyond fiction book, which seems to be in a perpetual state of rewrite (see above paragraph for why). He is definitely interested in publishing it and is thinking of next fall (2017). We also discussed the book’s content and even a next book in the series. He also gave me a deadline.

This talk, particularly hope for publication and when, as well as a submission deadline has kick-started me into action. And so I am making changes in my life and some things will be no-nos during writing time, some things will go in the Pending file for at least a month, some things I just won’t do (yesterday I said “no” to something and it felt good); other things are getting the boot.

Am still fine-tuning the whole business as I go, but so far I am trying to do these:

  1. Specific time-frame to work on my fiction with flexibility for writing meetings and book promo events that come up. Like Shane is doing with his fiction writing, I am assigning two days a week for just that – rewriting my novel. And for flexibility, yesterday afternoon is flipped to this afternoon because of a writing group meeting yesterday. I did get some writing done on the novel yesterday morning.NOTE: I do write other things and have editing clients and teach writing. That is for other days and workshops sometimes evenings, but again for days, I try to be flexible. It is all writing and writing-related business
  2. Book PR is limited to one thing a weekday. Public readings and the like are on top of this.
  3. I set a timer for half an hour mornings to do business email .Personal email is for outside my business hours (except for my son) which are roughly 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
  4. Make more of an effort to get started at 9.30 a.m.Sometimes difficult with chronic health issues and house repairs.
  5. Get more sleep at night. Can’ control the insomnia but have to make an effort to get to bed earlier.
  6. I’m letting my friends know what has been on my voice mail for ages but some don’t seem to get it, i.e., personal calls evenings and weekends only.
  7. This one I’ve been doing for some time and it’s outside of business hours too – don’t pick up the phone for possible telemarketers and if I get someone trying to sell me something I just yell out “Not interested” or if they ask for “Mr. or Mrs. Crawford” I reply – no one here by that name (true. I’m divorced) and you have the wrong number.” If I’m really angry I then yell “And get me off your bloody list.: Then I hang up.
  8. Try to keep the house maintenance/repairs out of my business hours and that one is hard when someone has to come to clear out your damn eavestroughs at least three times because of all the leaves falling and clogging it up.
  9. Keep getting back to utilities and the like for their screw-ups, problems, etc. to after my business hours if possible.
  10. The garden fall clean-up winter prep kept outside of business hours, although it is okay to do a bit at lunchtime, especially with Eastern Standard time returning this weekend.
  11. And this one – some of you might think I’m being mean here. But I’m putting on hold so-called friends who are unreliable and don’t show up (and don’t let me know that they can’t make it for dinners and the like we plan to meet up for – we all have things that crop up, but let me know before the meet-up that you can’t make it.

Hopefully ,I will now have my time to finish rewriting my novel. Up to now this week, I have been making some progress.  I know it is because I’m starting to get some control of my life – at least some of it. Now, if the computer problems and issues would stop, that would give me more time too.

How do you make time for your writing? Everyone’s circumstances are different. I am lucky in that I work mostly from my home office.

Cheers.

Sharon

I am taking part in the Toronto Heliconian Club Literature Section Salon (dinner and readings) next Tuesday afternoon. I am a member and will be reading an excerpt form a short story in Beyond the Tripping Point. More details in my Gigs and Blog Tours Page here.

Again, click on the Beyond Blood icon at the top to get to one place where print and e-copies are available.

And this, updating events on my website and the Gigs and Blogs Page (and the other social media links) constitute my book PR for today.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 3, 2016 in Author Reading, Beyond Blood, Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Book Promotion, Rewriting Fiction, Sharon A. Crawford, Time Management for Writers

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Dana Bowman from Beyond Blood appears again May 28

26 May
Sharon A. Crawford channelling Dana Bowman from Beyond Blood

Sharon A. Crawford channelling Dana Bowman from Beyond Blood

Dana Bowman, the main character, the irreverent  PI from my novel Beyond Blood will be doing another of her comedy skits this Saturday afternoon. The occasion is Toronto’s annual Doors Open and Dana (and me too) will be at the Toronto Heliconian Club volunteering from 1.30 p.m. and then performing at 4 p.m.

There’s a lot of work in these comedy skits and this one is 85 per cent new stuff. The premise is Dana is supposed to talk about Beyond Blood and she does – sort of – in her own way, dissing me and generally not following instructions. So trying to get this skit together with help from Dana hasn’t been easy. Dana keeps sticking her face in maybe too much and therein lies the dilemma.

Just who is writing this skit? Who wrote Beyond Blood. Both Dana and I each answer “I did.” The book has “Sharon A. Crawford” for the byline but the skit?

Personally, I would prefer Dana that writes it. She is performing it so it’s her call. So, she’s been digging inside my brain for info or I have been channeling her.

There are many things to consider – content – is it funny or funny enough? Sometimes what’s on paper doesn’t come across as funny enough when you perform it. Then you go back to the skit content and realize that a lot of it is in the performance. The practice session yesterday wasn’t up to par. But I wasn’t feeling well then so does that mean that Dana was also feeling sick?

I did get ideas for some skit changes and made them.

And it might help if I was fully in costume when practicing. Especially the hair.

That’s Dana at the top. And here is the blurb from my website about Dana at the Heliconian Club May 28.

Sharon A. Channels Dana Bowman at Toronto’s Doors Open

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Sharon A. Crawford will be channeling Dana Bowman, the main character in  Beyond Blood at the Toronto Heliconian Club during the first day of Toronto’s Doors Open. Sharon/Dana will be there from 1.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. to talk about the Heliconian Club along with other club members and she will take to the stage at 4 p.m. for a short comedy skit. Meantime, Sharon is coaching Dana on the Toronto Heliconian Club’s history and club activities, etc.

See you there.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

Sharon A. Crawford's latest in the Beyond series

Sharon A. Crawford’s latest in the Beyond series

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 26, 2016 in Beyond Blood, Book Promotion, Channelling Fiction Characters, Comedy Skit, Doors Open Toronto, Fiction Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Writing

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why do writers write?

27 Nov
Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

Sharon reads from her Beyond book series

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

 

  • Tennessee Williams

 

I was hit with this question and connected it to my crime fiction Beyond Blood and Beyond the Tripping Point.

The trigger was listening to best-selling author Linden MacIntyre being interviewed this morning by Mike Duncan on Classic 93.6 FM radio station. MacIntyre was talking about his new novel Punishment and its theme of vengeance versus justice. And he is also a former journalist, albeit a high profile broadcast journalist lately host of CBC’s investigative TV show The Fifth Estate. (More information on MacIntyre in this Toronto Star story http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2014/11/21/linden_macintyre_on_community_vengeance_and_punishment.html

 

What is it about journalists turning to writing fiction, often crime fiction?

I’m beginning to think it is our sense of justice, justice not really being meted out today to those who commit crimes, especially heinous crimes. And as journalists we certainly see our share of that in the true stories we write, as well as in what we read in the newspapers and magazines, whether in print or online. (For the record – now that is a journalistic phrase – I read both print and online.)

With me, this sense of justice is something I have carried from my childhood. Blame it on my Catholic background. As an ex-Catholic I can no longer stand by some of those beliefs. Although I have to admit that my sense of justice comes more from the “eye for an eye” of the Old Testament.

That may be where the vengeance factor fits in.

In all my short stories in Beyond the Tripping Point, no one who commits a crime gets away with it. Not all the baddies get arrested but they get their just desserts. For example, in “Unfinished Business” a woman who was sexually assaulted as a child gets her chance to get back at the guilty party when he becomes a threat to her 12-year-old daughter.

Then there are the four-linked stories featuring the fraternal twin PIs Dana Bowman and Bast Overture. Here all the baddies do get arrested. Dana and Bast both have a great sense of justice. Bast was a former crime reporter so he’s seen a lot of bad things and talked to a lot of bad people. As a journalist he had to try to sit on the observation side. As a PI, especially in my new novel Beyond Blood, he can do more.

But it is Dana who drives this search for justice. Especially after her son David is kidnapped. Then it becomes more personal. Nothing like motherly love to motivate someone.

Maybe that has something to do with my sense of justice – at least adds fuel to the fire. My son is in his mid-thirties now and was never kidnapped but there have been instances over the years where I went to bat for him, even if just the normal growing-up incidents that happen.

Of course, there are other reasons why I write and why crime fiction. I’ll cover them in future blog posts.

For now, I would like to know

Why do you write?

Please comment.

Cheers.

Sharon A. Crawford

This Saturday, Nov. 29, 11 a.m. to  4 p.m. I will be selling copies of Beyond Blood and Beyond the Tripping Point at the Toronto Heliconian Club Fine Arts and Gift Sale, 35 Hazelton Ave. (Yorkville area), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For more info about the Toronto Heliconian Club and this sale (open to the public), see http://heliconianclub.org/ Scroll down a bit – it is there.

For those not in the Toronto, Canada area, you can click on my book covers below – they will lead you to my publisher Blue Denim Press’s website. Scroll down and you can see where Beyond Blood is currently available, including at www.bluedenimpress.com.

And check my website www.samcraw.com – click on Beyond Blood. I constantly update my gigs on that site.

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to purchase e-copies

Cover of Beyond Blood by Sharon A. Crawford, published by Blue Denim Press. Click for link to publisher’s website

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford's mystery short story collection. Click on it for publisher's website

Cover of Sharon A. Crawford’s mystery short story collection. Click on it for link to publisher’s website

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 27, 2014 in Beyond Blood, Beyond the Tripping Point, Blue Denim Press, Fiction Characters, Plot and Characters, Sharon A. Crawford, Short Story Collection, Writing, Writing to solve real life problems

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 
%d bloggers like this: