A Gift That Keeps On Giving!

 

Larry B. Gildersleeve

Typing – a gift that keeps on giving

The world’s most successful novelist, James Patterson, eschews the use of a computer and writes all his books longhand – in pencil. As did the late Pat Conroy, whose bestselling works of fiction were many times the word-count of Patterson. It’s something that as a relative newcomer (four novels published over the past eight years) I struggle to get my mind around because I learned early-on how essential constant editing and re-writing are in the process.  

I regard my computer’s software as a “comb” at my fingertips to remove the tangles and smooth things out until the finished product looks just the way my editor and I want. Conroy obviously had a different editor relationship than mine, once quoted as saying: “I send her (Nan Telese) the manuscript and she finds the book in it.”  

When I was a junior in high school decades ago, I enrolled in typing class. My mother thought the skill would come in handy in my future, and I anticipated befriending girls in a classroom setting I might assume were otherwise unapproachable. Both of us were right. I still remember the phrase the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog uses every letter in the alphabet, and to this day I remain a fairly fast touch-typist who isn’t slowed down looking at the keyboard.

I owe my mother, a librarian, my love of reading, and my typing. Just wish she’d still been with us to read my books. Her opinion would have meant so much to me, and I think she might’ve been just a little bit proud.

 

Studying authors – as well as their writing

Authors, especially fiction-writers, are constantly encouraged to be avid readers, especially in their genre(s). Sage advice I follow, as well as reading outside my genre to study how other authors, the likes of Robert Parker and Stuart Woods, weave dialogue into their storyline. But over the past few years, I’ve also begun reading about the authors I’ve come to admire, recently and over time.

Stephen King reveals himself in his On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft, for my money, the best book ever written on the subject. I felt I really got to know Pat Conroy in the biography My Exaggerated Life, with which he cooperated, and A Lowcountry Heart, published after his passing. There’s Mockingbird about Harper Lee, published in 2008 while she was still alive and updated following her death. In 2022, James Patterson released his autobiography with his name as the title, and Kurt Vonnegut – The Making of a Writer, was published by one of his longtime friends.

I got a relatively late start in life as a novelist, and I have so much to learn. For me, reading about authors in addition to their work makes it a much richer experience.    

Finalist: Writers Digest 2022 Rhyming Poetry Contest



Bronze Award: Illumination Awards - Romance Fiction Category



Blue by You tells the uniquely romantic story of a man who falls in love with the same woman twice, decades and a thousand miles apart, but is a total stranger to her both times.

Daniel, a former D.C. trial attorney, has fled to Colorado following the cancer death of his young wife, a woman he'd known since their childhood. It's in a rural mountain setting two years later that a chance encounter results in a one-week love affair with Paula, a lifestyle writer from Nashville.

Paula is a person of faith; Daniel was while his wife was alive, but no longer. There is a soft-touch Christian theme throughout the book, especially about the power of prayer and the reality of redemption.

Paula leaves after the seven days, promising to return, but doesn't. And Daniel never hears from her again. They are reunited over twenty years later in Nashville, but a rare illness has deprived Paula of any memory of Daniel.

The two former lovers have been living very different lives over the years before they're brought together again by an up and coming country music singer who might be their daughter.

Daniel struggles with reliving his Colorado memories while falling in love with the same woman again who now can't share those memories with him. Together, they make new memories they can share -- until time runs out.

The book's title is wordplay on the song Blue Bayou, with Blue being an Australian Shepherd Paula comments is often by Daniel's side.

Larry B. Gildersleeve

American by birth and Southern by the Grace of God, Larry was born in Knoxville, TN, and raised and educated in Virginia and Kentucky. A three-decade corporate career took him across the country and around the world before he returned to Kentucky in 2014 to realize his long-deferred dream of becoming a published author. His three Parchment Series novels were released between 2016 and 2019, and his fourth novel, Blue by You, was published in mid-2022. All of Larry's works of fiction will be in the Christian and Inspirational genres. He is a member of the Association of American Christian Fiction Writers, the Academy of American Poets, the Alliance of Independent Authors, the Author's Guild and the Bluegrass Writer's Guild. Larry is married; the father of two and grandfather of four.

https://www.larrygildersleeve.com/

Larry Gildersleeve Talks About His Book Rising To #15 on Barnes & Noble's Best Seller List

Larry Gildersleeve

Larry, your fourth novel, Blue by You, recently rose to a #15 position on Barnes & Noble’s best-seller list. Any comments?

You bet. First and foremost, it came as a complete surprise. I learned about it when a friend texted that he’d seen the rating posted in our Sunday paper. Second, after everything I put into the book, it was extremely gratifying to enjoy that brief but shining moment in the sun. And seeing John Grisham listed at #16 caused me to fantasize that he was asking his agent or publisher “Who is this number fifteen guy?”

What do you mean by “brief moment”?

By the time I got around to checking the Barnes & Noble website a few days later, I wasn’t even ranked in their Top 100. Although I’ve never been able to find anything approaching a standard method of measurement to achieve bestseller status, my extensive research tells me it comes from one of two things, or both. Either cumulative sales of at least ten thousand books over an unspecified period of time, or a certain velocity of book sales in a very short period of time. I believe my carefully crafted and successfully executed launch triggered the Barnes & Noble algorithms for one week, and since I wasn’t able to sustain the momentum, I disappeared as quickly as I appeared. And I’m not yet claiming to be a best-selling author.

You mentioned your launch. How are you marketing your books?

Sad to say, I’ve only really put serious effort into marketing my current one, hoping for a read-through by those who enjoy Blue by You and wonder what else I’ve written. We all know the reality of self-publishing is that our books will never, or likely never, be on the shelves of mainstream book stores or in libraries. That leaves online distribution and marketing, and I have yet to crack the code to sustain significant sales over a long period of time. But I keep trying.

What are you trying?

Like many or most authors, I abhor social media for all the reasons we know so well. My focus has been on growing my proprietary opt-in/opt-out email database, using a free novella I wrote entitled My Way as my magnet tied to me web site, as well as beginning to write an infrequent newsletter targeted at readers. Instead of focusing entirely on selling books, I’m after peer recognition as an author by entering Blue in writing and award contests, as well as writing a recurring feature column in a four-color lifestyle magazine. And I’m seeking other periodical writing opportunities, as well, both traditional and online.

What is it about social media that’s caused you to feel the way you do?

In terms of marketing myself as an author and selling my books, I haven’t found a shred of empirical evidence supporting social media cause-effect relationships. Said another way, after a ton of research, I’ve found no legitimate bestselling indie author who has documented “I did these things, in this way, spending this amount of money, and achieved these results.” If I missed it, I hope it’s the subject of a future Suite T submission, or many submissions. It would be an enormous benefit to all self-published authors.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve received?

It came from a small gathering a few years ago with NY Times best-selling author Ann Patchett. When asked if she had a formula to recommend to aspiring authors, she replied in words to this effect: “Most books are purchased and read by women, especially fiction. Think about writing a book about women, for women, with women characters who are not defined by men nor dependent upon them. And have a happy ending.” From that evening on, that’s been the formula driving my writing, and I don’t see it ever changing. As a side note, I recently wrote her a thank-you letter and included her latest book, These Precious Days, with an autograph request. A few weeks later, the book came back with a personal note from her.

And the worst advice?

Just about anything and everything that comes from an unpublished author, or from the legions of people who promote themselves as bestselling, award-winning or acclaimed authors, but never disclose anything to substantiate those claims. Maybe they have some worthwhile thoughts and ideas, but if they begin by potentially misrepresenting themselves, I have no interest in what they have to say about anything else. You can’t lead further than you’ve been.

Larry Gildersleeve. He says, "American by birth and Southern by the Grace of God." Larry was born in Knoxville, TN, and raised and educated in Virginia and Kentucky. A three-decade corporate career took him across the country and around the world before he returned to Kentucky in 2014 to realize his long-deferred dream of becoming a published author. His three Parchment Series novels were released between 2016 and 2019, and his fourth novel, Blue by You, was published in mid-2022. All of Larry's works of fiction will be in the Christian and Inspirational genres. He is a member of the Association of American Christian Fiction Writers, the Academy of American Poets, the Alliance of Independent Authors, the Author's Guild and the Bluegrass Writer's Guild. Larry is married; the father of two and grandfather of four.