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Month: March 2020
Yesterday was supposed to have been my big book signing event at my hometown bookstore. Of course, I had to cancel it for pandemic reasons.
I had been looking forward to it so much, and I waited until the absolute last minute to make the cancellation official.
What was funny was that I didn’t feel as bad after I canceled it as I had before, when I was getting ready to. All the work that I put into the preparation, the time, the money (not that it was a lot, but enough that I’ll be wishing I hadn’t). These are trying times for all of us; not just me. But it is still funny, weird, and surreal, this almost peace I’m feeling about it.
It is what it is.
I decided to do an online book giveaway since I have a stash of them at home now. That was definitely an experience! I was going to make a YouTube video and post it across my social media platforms. No problem, right? Anyone can make a video!
Six hours later …
I had a 6-minute video for YouTube that passed my “It’s gotta be great!” “It’s gotta be good!” “It’s gotta be okay!” “It’s gotta be done!” level of expectation, and two hours’ worth of bloopers – and they weren’t all caused by my cats. You know what they say about ‘best laid plans’!
It was definitely a learning experience. I am such an amateur!
But I will improve on all of it, my basic video skills, my speaking, my speaking ‘habits’… etc.
Tha hair looked good, though.
For your amusement, possible interest, and a practical demonstration of many what-not-to-dos, you can watch the video here.
I hope you all are well.
Keep writing. I can’t say that enough.
I was 5 when I moved to Taunton and 8 when Readmore Bookstore came to town.
It was 1975 and schools didn’t just have ‘Suggested Reading Lists’ – they had ‘Read-a-thons’! Every time I heard of one coming up I was all Disaster-girl-Zoe-Roth just thinking about what I was going to do to my competition – and then I would plan a trip to Readmore.
There were different plans for those trips to Readmore over the years. My best friend Donna and I would rush over as soon as we finished book whatever in the Trixie Belden series for the next one (we shared those books; whichever one of us had the money paid for it). This was after the Nancy Drew book phase (and after we got our fixes of that on Sunday nights with The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries on television — oooh, Shaun Cassidy!)
Readmore has a buyback policy, where you can sell your books back for 10% store credit of the cover price. I was a book hoarder, so choosing which ones to let go of took a day or two. I also loved how my bookshelves looked with series collections on them; the uniform colors and sizes were so pretty to me (yes, I LOVED Encyclopedia Britannica, too), so I couldn’t get rid of any of them until I was done done. I’m the type of reader that will also read a book (or the end, or selected parts) over and over. I didn’t get rid of any of the Trixie Belden books until I fully outgrew them, which means I brought all of them in at once – that was a banner day, bringing in so many at once! My store credit was always used immediately, and if there was any left over because I couldn’t squeeze one more book out of it, I would keep the remainder receipt in a special place until the next time (losing one was a catastrophic event).
School-recommended reading lists were longer back in those days; I remember writing more than one book report before school started. Those were the best trips to Readmore – we had to get books for school, so my parents had to pay!
And Readmore was there for me through every stage of my reading growth, and therefore my entire childhood. From Trixie Beldon to Judy Blume, up to general Harlequin then Silhouette Romance books to dedicated romance authors like Janet Dailey, Jude Deveraux, and Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, and then Erma Bombeck on to Stephen King and Sidney Sheldon.
And now, 45 years later, I wrote my own book.
And on Saturday, March 21, 2020, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm, I will be back at Readmore for my very own book signing event.
It’s like going home.
****
(Photo credit: Kerry Akashian)
Readmore Books
330 Winthrop Street
Taunton, MA 02780
(508) 822-3074
Book: “ISSUES: The Opposite of Everything I Was Taught“
Synopsis
Most of our unhappiness or general dissatisfaction with life comes from not living as who we are and instead trying to live as who we were told to be. Before you can live genuinely, you need to know how you think.
This is a book of perspectives that challenge you to think about whether or not you think for yourself, using the author’s own thoughts and experiences as something to reflect off of. Given the author’s proclivity for taking perspectives to the extreme, it is like standing before a fun-house mirror and realizing who you are by seeing who you are not.
In each essay, Sue Roulusonis will deliberately push your buttons on subjects like self-awareness and judgment, religion and sex, self-love and parenting. At no point anywhere in this book will you find cooking tips.
I did it! I had my first radio interview ‘as an author’!
First of all, does anyone know how to start your own radio show on the same budget you can self-publish on? What fun I had! (And I didn’t swear once, Mom!)
Blogs are pretty forgiving, right? I’m rushing this one because I was so excited to post the update – but I have to get ready for work!
I think it went pretty well, for my first time. Of course, already knowing Morgan and having a repartee with him helped, but I was super-conscious that I was there to promote my book and not just shoot the shit.
One thing to remember about radio is it’s really short time. Morgan’s show takes regular commercial, news and weather breaks, and because of the way people pop in, you are constantly repeating who you are and why you are there. I have to work on my ‘recap’. I’d forget little things (like the time of my book signing that I was promoting).
Another radio ‘thing’ is that if you are unknown and tell people to buy your book on Amazon, they are going to wade through many similarly-titled books until they find yours, so you have to come up with an easy way for them to find you. I’m screwed in the name department: my last name is Roulusonis. Tell that to someone on the air who wants to look you up!
I did have a friend listen in who gave me a few pointers about telling a few personal anecdotes about myself. Maybe next time I’m on, people who have read the book will call in!
One other pointer: if you have someone there taking pictures for you, make sure they use your phone or camera! We got back at about 2:30 am and I only got two pictures that were taken!
All in all, what a great experience!
And I totally rocked the headphones!
But I’ll do even better the next time (and I’m grateful for that, too)! My next interview date is March 21, 12 am – 1am.
WBZ Radio Boston: https://wbznewsradio.iheart.com/
The Morgan Show with Morgan White, Jr.
The book: ISSUES: The Opposite of Everything I was Taught
Book Signing Event:
Readmore Bookstore, 330 Winthrop Street, Taunton, MA 02780
March 21, 2020 2:00 – 4:00 pm
A Life In and Of Writing 