Sage Woman Chronicles

How to Help Your Favorite Authors

Revised book cover for The Space Between Time

“People can’t read a book if they don’t know it exists. All authors need to do marketing, regardless of how they published.” ~ Jo Linsdell

I’m a bit under the weather as I write this. I guess it’s my year to get a cold, so I’m reposting an article I wrote last year. It’s particularly appropriate since a friend of mine and my mother-in-law recently wrote reviews of my book, The Space Between Time, one on Amazon and the other on Goodreads. They were both favorable, which was very heartwarming. Thanks, Rita.

My mother-in-law, Judy, is a CHAMPION reader. I put champion in caps because she reads about two-hundred books a year. And she writes reviews for most if not all of them. In fact, she won an award from Goodreads a year or so ago for writing so many reviews. So the fact that she took time to read my book, which is not a genre she normally reads, and then wrote a lovely review was a big help for promoting my book. Thanks, Mom.

If you’re a reader, you can do your favorite authors a big favor by doing some of things below to help spread the word about their books. I’ve reposted this a couple of times, but it never hurts to repeat good information.

Word of mouth is still the best advertising tool. How many of you discuss your favorite TV show’s latest episode with friends, family and coworkers? See what I mean? You are creating a buzz. You can do that for your favorite authors as well. Here are some ways you can help them.

Write a review of the books you read and leave it on Amazon, Goodreads, in your blog, any social media site, or bookseller you choose.

If you are a member of Goodreads, just putting books on your “want to read” shelf will get the book noticed by the Goodreads staff and they may even promote them on their site.

If you like a book, let your local bookstore and library know what you thought of it, and ask them to carry and promote it.

Share your thoughts about the book with your friends and book club groups that you might belong to.

Consider asking the author to have a Skype session with your book club group so they can ask questions, or suggest that your local bookstore invite your favorite author to have a book reading/signing.

Give the book to your friends and family as gifts.

You may think these tips are rather easy and trivial, but if you help your favorite author sell more books, you will be helping them pay for all the time they spent working on it. Writing a book is not an easy thing to do, you know. If it was, more people would be doing it.

I’m shamelessly adding the reviews below.

Rita’s review: Recently, I finished reading a book titled, The Space Between Time, by my friend, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden. It was the best book I’ve read in a long time. It kept me captivated, which I have not experienced from any other book for the past couple of years. I loved all the little gems of meaningful and what I call spiritual statements throughout the book. You know, those words that make you pause and think, and sometimes have an “aha” from or a deeper awareness about something. And it was entertaining and informational about some of the history in the 1800’s and yet, contemporary. It also reminded me of the importance of “living in community” and how important it is to help one another and be engaged in your community. Thank you Lucinda for a wonderful, entertaining and captivating book!

Judy’s review: It is quite apparent that I have a relationship with the author of this book. Lucinda Sage-Midgorden is married to my son Barry. Because of that connection you should expect some bias in my evaluation of the book. However, there is another factor that may offset my favorable bias, and that is that I don’t really like and read very few in this genre. When I look at a book that is classified as time-travel, paranormal, or sci-fi, I usually skip it. I wanted to read Lucinda’s book to support her. She has worked for many years to complete this novel, and I know the editing and re-writing that she went through. Well, imagine my surprise when I found myself engrossed in the book and connecting to the characters and the story lines. I deeply respect anyone who writes a book, and Lucinda has produced a complicated novel that involves two different characters that are separated by years. At first I liked the sections with the historical character, Morgan, because my favorite genre is historical fiction. But I also became involved in the troubles that Jenna is facing in her life. It is interesting how these two women separated by time, but connected through family come to help each other deal with their problems. Many times the things these two women learn about facing life is good advice for anyone. I really did enjoy the book, and I hope many more will purchase it and find it as good a read as I did!

If you are so inclined to buy my book, and promote it, I will greatly appreciate it. And so will your favorite authors when you do the same for their books. And by the way, my husband Barry designed the cover art, maps, did the layout, and final editing for the book. It was a team effort.

Thanks for reading, commenting and liking my posts. I appreciate it.

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards. It’s a historical, time-travel, magical realism, women’s novel, and is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords, and print-on-demand at Amazon and other fine book sellers. To join her email list, click here. She will never sell the names on her list.

Themes for My Year

“I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful – for all of it.” ~ Kristin Armstrong

I resemble the quote above. I just finished my first full week of teaching three college classes. It’s four late evenings a week. A couple of interesting things happened. First, I thought I’d be exhausted by the Thursday night. I wasn’t! I felt great on the drive home, energized by my students. However, when I woke up in the morning my head was in a fog and I felt like everything I’m doing to going to fail, or worse be mediocre. This post is my attempt to unravel my feelings of inadequacy.

The second thing that happened was that I noticed a theme emerging from the play I’m directing and the movies I chose for my dramatic structure class. Measure for Measure, and most of the movies are about flawed and damaged people trying to protect themselves. Some of them commit terrible acts, or are forced to face their woundedness. But in almost every case they are redeemed by people who love and forgive them.

Then there was the Larry Nassar case. He sexually abused more than 150 young girls and women gymnasts including some Olympic champions. Thursday night as we were leaving class, my students couldn’t help but bring up the case and how they thought he got what he deserved. All the way home I was thinking about my themes for the year; how we’re all flawed, sometimes making huge mistakes, and that possibly unconditional love and forgiveness might just redeem us all. But it’s hard to go against conventional wisdom. I mean, I feel torn about such cases. Do we just let violent offenders go without any consequences? Do we shower them with love and expect them to change?

I have no clear answers for those questions, except that I think it’s always good to defend the weak. And how can we learn if we don’t face the consequences of what we do?

As I was ruminating about these issues, the book Conversations with God came to mind. In the book, Neale Donald Walsch asks God a very important question about the evil we humans have created. God said something that confirmed some deeply buried beliefs I had never dared to speak out loud, “”Evil is that which you call evil. Yet even that I love, for it is only through that which you call evil that you can know good; only through that which you call the work of the devil that you can know and do the work of God. … I do not love ‘good’ more than ‘bad.’ Hitler went to heaven. When you understand this, you will understand God.” Then when Neale says that he was raised to believe that good and bad do exist, God replies, “Everything is ‘acceptable’ in the sight of God, for how can God not accept that which is? … Yet hold to your beliefs and stay true to your values … still examine them one by one.”

Well, this year I’m examining my beliefs about what we do to ourselves and each other. For now holding myself and others accountable is a good thing. The discussions that abound right now about human rights of all kinds are good because we need to address the rage of those who have been mistreated for so many centuries. We have to allow them to tell their stories so they can heal. In turn we all need to tell our stories in order to see where we’ve become uncaring and cruel so we can choose new ways to interact with each other.

On a more personal note, during this process of preparing to direct Measure for Measure, I realize that I am so hard on myself. I blame myself for not being sensitive enough, yet like two of the main characters in the play, I’m tempted to shut off my emotions because it’s just too painful to be bombarded daily with new allegations of abuse, or new legislation that hurts the people who are in the most need. I expect myself to be perfectly loving, accepting, compassionate, and forgiving. But I’m human and sometimes I call people idiots and shake may head at their lack of compassion. Then I think, who am I to judge? Living is a complicated proposition, unless I remember that I’m not the one in charge of the big picture. I’m merely one of the actors on the stage.

So, we’re all works in progress and I’ll try to be better at giving myself a break when I’m not as “good” as I think I should be and do the same for those around me.

Thanks for reading, commenting and pressing the like button.

Trying Something New

“Be brave enough to try something new; you might just succeed.” ~ Stacey Kehoe

“I want to keep trying something new all the time. It is the only way to grow.” ~ Akkineni Nagarjuna

“I’m open for possibilities. I’m open for choices. I always welcome new ideas. I’m always eager to learn. I’m never going to close my mind from learning.” ~ Cesar Millan

Last week I learned something new. I poked around on my WordPress page and discovered how to embed a video into this blog. I was so proud of myself. I could have asked my husband, my resident tech geek, for help but I wanted to learn how to do it for myself so I would remember how to do it again on another occasion.

Something else I learned last week was how to create and edit an audio recording in Garage Band, the music/voice app for the Mac. I did that because – drum roll – I wanted to add an audio of myself reading the first chapters of my book.

You see, I want to create an audio version of The Space Between Time this year and I thought I might try out a few chapters on all my social networks, and here with you in this blog. They do it with plays and movies, do what they call tryouts to see how it will be received. I’m doing that to see if I can get feedback because, even though I have acted in the past, I’m not a professional actor. And it’s been a really long time since I’ve been on the stage. Let me just say that my first attempt was not very good. Today, I’m sharing my second attempt. It may take me awhile before I get back into the acting groove.

The section I’m sharing today is a short beginning portion of chapter one. I had to create a YouTube video, but I’ll keep working on creating just an audio version. I hope you enjoy it, or if not please give me some constructive feedback.

Thanks for reading, and listening. I appreciate your likes and comments.

Unbridled Joy

“Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain … To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.” ~ Kevyn Aucoin

“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” ~ Joseph Campbell

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host again difficulties.” ~ Helen Keller

During my meditation and study this morning, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I have not had enough moments of unbridled joy in my life and that made me sad for a moment. It’s not enough to let go of fear, which I’m working on. I need to stop being so repressed and allow myself to express joy and not care what anyone thinks about it.

Then, in Pam Grout’s post about today’s A Course In Miracles lesson she said that the course can be summed up in 11 words: The universe has your back and everything’s going to be okay, which to me means I don’t have to control any of the things I thought I had to keep my eye on. I’m free to look around and appreciate the beauty of the world, or enjoy conversations with students, family, or friends, or have fun reading a good book or watching a movie. I can enjoy teaching, writing and directing. I can even enjoy going grocery shopping, or running errands. The decision about how I feel about my life is inside my head and heart.

The most important thing I have to remind myself about all the time is that my thoughts, feelings and actions aren’t confined to just me. They are energy which projects out and affect everything and everyone. Knowing that makes me feel even more committed to sharing the positive emotions rather than the negative. I want to be one of those people others want to be with because they feel good when I’m around. Don’t we avoid people who make us feel horrible? I know I do because after spending even a small amount of time around them, I feel exhausted.

So, I’m going to spread a little joy today by sharing the same Matt Harding video Pam shared in her blog. I don’t know why, but I cry every time I see this. And judging by the comments on his YouTube channel, I’m not the only one who weeps. The video makes me cry and laugh at the same time. Maybe it’s because I’m releasing all those negative emotions and making room for joy. Or maybe it’s because it’s the vision of the world I want to live in.

Thanks so much for reading. Have a joyful weekend.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

“Life is a series of experiences each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.” ~ Henry Ford

“We all get where we’re going by circuitous journeys, and some of the setbacks are warranted.” ~ Carol Burnett

Has this ever happened to you? You get an insight about something, or you learn a new skill and your world expands in some way. For awhile your new understanding is glorious and you feel so happy. But not long after something inside you gets frightened and rebels. It sets up an inner conflict which explodes making you feel unsettled and frightened, which causes you to lash out at those around you.

That happened to me last week. I’ve started doing A Course In Miracles daily exercises again this year and I got a profound insight that I wrote about a few posts back. I felt for the first time just how afraid I’ve been most of my life. But the thing is once I got that insight, I saw myself and my relationship to everything as free from fear. I saw myself creating a wonderful new life full of once unimaginable joyful experiences. For a day or two it was a glorious feeling. Then my ego said, “Oh no you don’t. I’m taking control back.” And I began to feel small, and anxious again.

It’s funny the way my ego will use little things to try to reel me back in. This time it was comments from my new critique partners about the first chapter of my new book. I got huffy and wanted to shoot nasty comments back and I even made some nasty comments to my husband about something completely trivial and totally unrelated. When I heard myself, I knew exactly what was happening.

So, I went to my journal to sort out my feelings. Writing always helps me get out the irksome emotions so I can tell my ego to go take a hike. When the negative feelings clear out, I see things much more clearly. What I figured out was that I wasn’t angry with my critique partners or my sweet husband. I was angry that I had let my ego sneak in and try to take control again.

I’ve been at this spiritual, self-awareness work for a long time, and what happened last week should not have come as a surprise to me. It’s always the same, two steps forward and one step back, or at least my ego would like me to take steps back. But once I’ve had that new insight, or learned that new skill, I can’t unsee or unlearn it. It’s kind of like those mind bending pictures artists do to try to get us to see the hidden words, or figures in their work. We stare at the picture and once we see what they’ve hidden, we can’t unsee it.

Even though there are things that unsettle me from time to time, I’m grateful I have the tools of writing and meditation to help me work things out. Sometimes I wonder what it must be like for people who don’t have any way to get rid of their fear. I wish I could help them. Maybe one way I can help is to be honest about my own stumbling journey. Another is to be kind. I’m not always good at either of those especially if I feel threatened, but I’ll keep working on it.

To end this post, I’ll include a review of my first book from a friend of mine sent a day after my little run in with my ego. It was totally unexpected and came just at the right time.

“Recently, I finished reading a book titled, The Space Between Time, by my friend, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden. It was the best book I’ve read in a long time. It kept me captivated, which I have not experienced from any other book for the past couple of years. I loved all the little gems of meaningful and what I call spiritual statements throughout the book. You know, those words that make you pause and think, and sometimes have an “aha” from or a deeper awareness about something. And it was entertaining and informational about some of the history in the 1800’s and yet, contemporary. It also reminded me of the importance of “living in community” and how important it is to help one another and be engaged in your community. Thank you Lucinda for a wonderful, entertaining and captivating book!” ~ Rita Gau

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your taking time out of your week to comment and like my posts.