Awash in Support? What I've Learned from My Kindle Scout Campaign

It's down to the wire. Tomorrow is the last day to nominate Awash in Talent in the Kindle Scout program. The campaign ends at midnight EDT February 28/29, so if you're looking at this on Leap Year Day, you've missed your chance.

On Leap Year Day, I'll look at my final figures and keep my fingers crossed that someone at Kindle Press loves my dear unusual Awash in Talent enough to publish it on its own strengths and on the support I've been able to muster. Because although a high number of nominations is probably interesting to Kindle Press, the human beings who staff it have the final say as to whether they'll put the time and effort into ensuring any book's success. It's a great policy for quality assurance—I know as a publisher that we can't give our utmost to a book if we don't adore it. There's too much hard, annoying, nasty stuff that goes on behind the scenes of publishing. Without the love, it isn't worth it.

I'll also reflect on the things I've learned during the Kindle Scout campaign. During this grueling month of trying to get the word about Awash in Talent to the right readers, I've learned more than I can possibly express here. Some of it was technical, such as how to pin a Tweet to the top of your profile so it doesn't get lost in the all the retweeting support you're happy to do for other authors. Some of it was basic marketing, such as how a good book cover can keep a book trending, but it's got to already be trending, because people can't be drawn in by a cover they don't see.

Most importantly, I've learned that if you ask a person a favor, they won't do it for you unless there's some love between you. In the past, I've had some positive outcomes from going outside my comfort zone to ask for what I want. This time around, I asked a few media outlets to cover Awash in Talent's Kindle Scout campaign, outlets I thought might have an interest because they love Providence as much as I do. Mostly I got frozen out. The few I got responses from weren't willing to share the link because it felt like advertising. Is it advertising when you're looking for nonmonetary support? When you wish to share your enthusiasm for a place with people you think also might be enthused? I must not have offered enough benefit to these outlets. Because there's another side to the story.

This graphic, so helpful to an author's self-esteem, shows how many hours
the book was "Hot & Trending" each day through 2/16.

The first time Awash in Talent was "Hot & Trending," at the beginning of the campaign, was the direct result of an email I sent to an exclusive circle of about 30 people. All were either related to me by blood or love, or we had a mutually beneficial working relationship. Their support at this crucial time gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling I'm not accustomed to. They like me! They really like me! All I had to do was ask for their support and they gave it. Those are some endorphins!

I think there was quite a bit of helpful sharing going on from this group, but the only evidence I have is that my brother and brother-in-law mentioned me twice on their popular podcast (Episode 19, minute mark 13:22 and Episode 20, minute mark 13:56).

The Crazy Mind interviewed me and produced some scintillating conversation, too.

The second, even more spectacular, and apparently final spell of "Hot & Trending" was another direct result of asking for support. This time, the group I asked was my high school graduating class. I didn't expect the beautiful outpouring of faith, and it was beautiful. I'm so moved. I think perhaps the connection between human beings becomes really strong when you've spent hours and hours in a room together, as you do in school. The connection lasts a long time, too, because I'm not exactly a recent high school grad. I feel inspired to do a book event or two in my hometown area now, so I can be with my amazing supporters, and get some more endorphins.

I'm also doing that thing the publishing industry declares necessary for building a relationship with new readers: starting a newsletter. You can sign up for my newsletter by putting your email in the box at the top of this post or at this cute page. You likely won't receive anything for a month or two while I sort out the chaos of my writing life. When those rare messages finally come, you won't regret having signed up.

Just to remind you, midnight EST on February 28 is your last chance to nominate Awash in Talent. You'll think it's worthwhile if you like books with heartfelt, developed characters and unpredictable plots, Rhode Island and other exotic locations, fantastic powers, and realistic yearnings of the heart. Emily, Kelly, and Patricia are characters whose story demanded to be told, and who would love to meet all you wonderful readers in the published book.

If you haven't done it yet, you can still be my personal hero by nominating Awash in Talent or by sharing the link with readers you think might enjoy it via social media, email, phone calls, anything that works!

Whatever the outcome, I know I've done everything in my power. That doesn't stop the nerves, though! Thank you so much for going through this challenging experience in hope with me.

Awash in Talent: Get to Know Kelly the Firestarter

This, the day before Valentine's, is a great time to talk about WaterFire because, of the three novellas in Awash in Talent (the novel you can make sure gets published!), this one has the purest and most innocent concept of love.

Note, I didn't say it had a happy ending necessarily. It's just that the people in love are pretty new at it and are doing it without malice or manipulation, which can't be said about the other love stories in this novel.

WaterFire is the second novella and is narrated by Kelly, a pyrokinetic (firestarter) who's been placed in Providence's special school for her Talent after coming into her power in a surprising and destructive way. I imagine that's Kelly on the cover, sitting on the docks near the school and contemplating her fate as well as the beautiful city she loves but must escape from. The cover was created by Amygdala Designs and inspired the romantic scene in which Brian takes Kelly on a seemingly spontaneous date to WaterFire.

WaterFire is a real-life public art installation that Kelly appreciates and describes in detail in the novella. Check it out here.

Kelly's love, Brian, is another student at the school, which little by little is revealed to be nothing more than a lockdown facility to keep the frightening powers of the pyrokinetics out of the public arena. This is a problem because Kelly's mother is suffering in the burn ward at Mass General Hospital in Boston. Kelly finds out that Emily's sister might be able to heal her mother! How can she bring them together when no one trusts her to be able to control her Talent?

While the love story is a beautiful part of WaterFire, it doesn't define Kelly. She's too busy understanding her own power and trying to save her mother. I enjoyed writing about a teenager who has a lot of problems, but love isn't one.

You can read about Kelly's journey of emotional strength—and don't miss the underaged driving in the snow!—if Awash in Talent gets enough nominations in the Kindle Scout program to win publication. Everyone who nominates Awash in Talent before February 29 will receive an exclusive free early reader copy! Help me make my dream come true. I'll thank you for it.

See even more about Awash in Talent here.

Cover Reveal and the Beginnings of My YA Paranormal Adventure Set in Providence

It's the book with telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and psychic powers. Just as importantly, it's the novel with a field study in Ethiopia, a snowy trip to Boston, and the wonders of Waterfire in inimitable Providence, Rhode Island. It's Awash in Talent, and it's nearly ready to knock your literary socks off!

The amazing cover was created by Jasmine Green. It captures the female focus of the book and the way their Talents can make the characters feel, at the same time, invincible and about to drown.

I'm sharing the cover with you on the auspicious occasion of the beginning of Awash in Talent's Kindle Scout campaign. This is your opportunity to select Awash in Talent for publication by Kindle Press!

The link takes you a rather attractive page with the cover, the tag line (So much Talent can kill you.), an excerpt from the beginning through most of Chapter 2, a short bio, and three questions and answers about the book. It also shows a "Nominate" button. If you think Awash in Talent is worthy, all you have to do is click the "Nominate" button before February 29 (Leap Year Day!).

This simple act will get you three major benefits:

1. If Awash in Talent is chosen for publication (because you nominated it!), you will receive an exclusive edition of the novel for free before anyone can buy it! You'll be under no obligation to read it or to leave a review, although that's what Amazon (and I) will be hoping for.

2. You will have helped an author's dreams come true. How great will that feel?

3. You will be the proud owner of my gratitude. I will remember you when my writing career takes off. The value of this benefit is incalculable.

Here's a little more about the novel. At the link, you can also read an excerpt that introduces Emily's world. More beautiful graphics and descriptions are to come in the following weeks.

Emily can’t escape her annoyingly Talented telekinetic healer sister by going to a university 3000 miles away, in Providence, or even by doing a field study in Ethiopia. Why don’t people give credit where credit is due?

Kelly is forced to attend a pyrokinesis school/lockdown facility, but she must escape and bring Emily’s healer sister to Boston—her mother’s life depends on it.

Appointments with Emily might drive psychic therapist Patricia insane. Meanwhile, Patricia falls ever deeper into her husband’s selfish, cruel trap. In Providence, Friendship is a one-way street.

Awash in Talent is a novel in three interrelated novellas, all set in Providence, Rhode Island, where telekinetics, firestarters, and psychics attempt to function in a largely un-Talented society unappreciative of what they have to offer. Love/hate between sisters, mother and daughter, scared teenagers, a mismatched married couple, adult female friends, and an obsessive and the object of her affection are all put to the test.

The Kindle Scout campaign runs from now until midnight EST February 29. It's easy—just one click brings so much joy! Thank you so much for your consideration.

Happy Thanksgiving with Waterfire

Happy Thanksgiving! When I first showed this excerpt to my critique group, one member said there was too much good stuff going on and I should add some bad stuff back in. I didn't think Thanksgiving was the time to punish my main character, Kelly, who already has a lot of rough life issues to deal with. 

Kelly and Brian attend the school for fire starters (the PMA), where they are watched and curbed and reigned in at all times. They have to wear patches that contain substances that prevent them from randomly setting things on fire. At Brian's house, things are a little more relaxed.

Enjoy! 

Brian took me into the kitchen for a snack and oh my God, there were like a million potluck dishes steaming away on the counters. The ovens and burners were cooking away, too. It was like an army was coming through, and Brian pointed to each dish and told me what it was and whether I could dig in yet. Most of the things were pre-dinner lunch-snacks. We each took a plate of roasted chicken and noodles to the back deck, where they would be able to see the planes coming in if only it weren’t Thanksgiving Day with its small number of flights. No one else was out there—it was freezing!

We ate our food and talked about stuff. He complimented my piano playing and I complimented his singing, and because I smelled wood smoke in the air, it made me think of Waterfire.

“Brian,” I said, “I’ve been thinking a lot about how you can put fires out with your Talent. Do you think it’s something any pyro can learn?”

“Yeah,” he said, setting his plate on the railing. “Let’s try it now. Make a fire on my plate. It’s stoneware.”

“I can’t. I’m wearing my patch. Aren’t you?”

He reached inside his sleeve and pulled out his tungsten patch. “Where do you have yours?”

I set my plate down next to his and lifted my shirt a little to reveal the patch next to my bellybutton. The location had worked well yesterday for scratching unseen at the dinner table.

His hand was strangely warm as he lifted the side of the patch and tore it off. I guess it was the feel of skin on skin? We gravitated toward each other, I lifted my face and he bent down a little and like magnets, we were all of a sudden kissing.

I heard an explosion near my ear and pulled away in time to see sparks falling onto my plate and settling around the leftover noodles and bones, smoking just a bit, and making a decent little blaze.

“You didn’t have to do that to get me to make a fire,” I said.

“No, I wanted to do that, didn’t you?” he said.

“Right now you should put out the fire,” I told him.

“No, it’s your fire. You try.”

A few adults had come running to the back door at the sound of the explosion, so I felt watched. Brian waved them away, and finally Brian’s dad told them we had it under control. All the while, of course, the blaze was growing in strength and I was getting more and more stressed.

“You can put it out now,” said Brian.

Easier said than done. I stared at the flames until they looked dark, but couldn’t wrap my head around the way to take them out of existence. I’m still not sure how I get them into existence, after all! I squinted and strained, then looked at Brian for help. “How do you do it?”

“I just reverse the process of setting a fire. It’s very intuitive.”

I sighed and tried sticking my hand out the way he had at Waterfire, but the only thing that happened was my arm got cold away from my body.

“I give up!”

“See, this is why we need practice rooms at the PMA. How will any of us ever get familiar with how we operate, how can we focus our intentions, when all they ever do is throw flame retardant at us?” He held his hand out and sucked my fire into his finger with no apparent effort, like he’d been doing it all his life.

He blew on the end of his finger like it was a pistol or something and came in for a hug.

“Back to the piano for a while?” he asked me.

I nodded, and when he went to open the back door, I scooped up the patch he’d ripped off me and pressed it under my shirt again. It had some dirt and twigs, but it was a lot better than setting fire to his family home.

Waterfire, the middle story of Awash in Talent, will be published in 2015!

A Reader's Guide to Waterfire, Providence's Signature Public Art

All photos in this post taken 2014 by Jessica Knauss 

It was a hot summer night. After a delicious dinner at one of the fine establishments at Providence Place (the best mall I've ever been in and more outstanding for being smack in the middle of things instead of in some dusty suburb), my husband and I headed over to the one event that defines Providence even more than the mall: Waterfire.

As my blog readers know, I've written a novella entitled Waterfire, in which this inexplicably essential art installation plays an inspirational role. When I returned to New England, I was keen to visit the real-life event as soon as possible.

Waterplace Park before lighting.

Large numbers of people were gathering long before sunset, ready for the magic. In the photo, you can see the pyres jutting from the water, well stocked with cedar firewood.

The mystical circle at Waterplace, with DownCity in the background.

And then they were lit! After a ceremony we couldn't really see, a special delegation of sponsors got to sail around the pyres and get them going with the help of a gas jet.

This may not be the best picture of the night, but for me it captures the sense of fascination people have with the fire and the water. It's a magical combination.

Looking back at the mystic circle with Providence Place in the background.

We took a route opposite to the one my characters, Kelly and Brian, take in the novella. When they see this view, they're close to the end of their night and the height of first-date giddiness.

Here the fire throws glimmering light onto a gondola, an essential part of Waterfire and so popular I wanted to do it to celebrate my PhD, but you had to have made reservations a year in advance.

The stokers add cedar planks — quickly as they sail by — to keep the flames alight. In my story, the stokers can start and stoke the fires with their minds — and with the uninvited help of Kelly and Brian, my teenage firestarters.

The gondoliers show off their authentic costumes at the gondola dock.

Waterfire passes along the foot of College Hill.

This is the quieter part of the exhibit. The single-row layout is where Kelly and Brian first come upon the crackling energy and incense-like smells.

And then we heard what Kelly and Brian heard: her favorite piece of music, "The Prayer of St. Gregory" by Alan Hovhaness. In these videos, you can't distinguish the music quite as well as the snaps and pops of the fire, which is how it should be.

#EggcerptExchange and Cover Reveal: Waterfire

On April 14, I'll be featured at amazing author Tina Gayle's Eggcerpt Exchange. I'll be featuring Tina here soon, so look out for that!

In honor of this auspicious occasion, I thought now would be a good time to reveal the cover for my YA novella, Waterfire. Waterfire is the second novella in the Providence Trilogy. The cover is done by Amygdala Design and actually inspired the fire drill scene on the docks.

Changes in my life have delayed the publication of the Providence Trilogy, but it should still debut, one novella at a time, in 2015.

About Waterfire

Told as a series of diary entries, Waterfire chronicles the way Kelly learns that she has the power to set things on fire with her mind. All such pyrokinetic teenagers must attend a school where their power is repressed at all times. With the help of her friends, Kelly must escape the prison-like regime in order to save her mother's life.

Eggcerpt

September 7

Maybe if I write about the first day here, it will stop rattling around in my head like big clumps of lead.

Actually, I wish I had a big clump of lead to carry around with me instead of this stuff. They give us small patches, like nicotine patches for people who want to quit smoking, but with our kryptonite to wear against our skin and help control the urges. It does seem to cut down on the incidents – I haven’t made a fire since I got here a week ago. But, God, it itches like crazy! I’m always scratching at mine, I can’t help it, and I have to be careful with where I put the new patch of the day because I could look like an idiot scratching my armpits or some other sensitive area all day. They let us take them off at night so we can sleep, because everyone has an adverse reaction to their patch, but not everyone itches. Melinda, the high and mighty, claims it makes her tired so she can’t do PE. Like she’s having her period, all the time. I swear, she’s like a Victorian with the vapors every day at two o’clock. And the teachers fall for it! They let her go take a nap in her room. I wonder what she really does in there while we have to jog laps around the gym and bounce ridiculous balls off stupid things, like each other. I mean, what does that have to do with not setting anything on fire?

Anyway, my first day here, I barely had time to drop my bags before we had a get-to-know-you kind of meeting, which they called “orientation.” They made us all sit in a circle on the floor – yes, the concrete floor, with no rugs or pillow, what were they thinking? About flammability. I swear that’s all we are to these people — big walking fireballs. Todd, the lanky upperclassman who led the group with a senior girl and one of the teachers, had us go around the circle saying our names and what our kryptonite was. It was probably more to orient them to us, to prepare the patches, than for any other reason.

So there are precisely twenty of us newbies here. They started the circle with Brian, who was sitting right next to me, but it went in the opposite direction! So after Brian said he couldn’t produce flames in the presence of tungsten, eighteen other people went ahead of me. I was getting more nervous by the minute and barely heard what the other people said, with their run-of-the-mill kryptonites like lithium, beryllium and even krypton, which seems reasonable enough but is pretty expensive for the school to have on hand. My ears pricked up when a girl named Jill admitted phosphorus took away her powers. I snickered quietly to test whether anyone else would, but there were no takers. Come on, it’s embarrassing to be a pyrokinetic and have that ability erased by phosphorus, right? The stuff they put in the heads of matches? Doesn’t that seem a little ironic, at least?

“There’s no shame in any kryptonite. We all have one,” said Todd. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye like I was some kind of troublemaker.

So I rolled my eyes to show my disregard for authority to the other new students and held my breath again. Maybe if they didn’t laugh at phosphorus, they wouldn’t laugh at me, either. Maybe. Possibly.

No one was looking at my reddening face because it was Melinda’s turn, whoop de doo. She demurely announced her name and said, “My kryptonite is platinum.” She flashed a smile that I swear cut the air with a knife-sharpening sound. She drew a shiny necklace from under her blouse. “I already wear this all the time, ever since my parents gave it to me. I won’t need a patch.”

A hushed “ooh” went around the circle. Todd was nodding, as if Melinda had already arranged it all with the administration. Brian, right next to me, sucked in air. I couldn’t say exactly what he was thinking, but I knew right then that I liked him. A lot. Unbidden, the image of placing a darkly shiny tungsten wedding band around his finger entered my mind. It helped that he smelled pretty good. Since then, of course, it’s hard to smell anything other than my stupid patch.

Melinda’s act was hard to follow and I didn’t notice what anyone else said, so when it came to me, it still seemed like I had to compare myself to platinum. I covered my mouth to muffle the name of my fire-dampening element, but of course Todd said, “What was that? Say it again.”

“My name is Kelly,” I repeated, putting my diaphragm into it. “And my kryptonite is sulfur.” I wondered if I’d started a blaze on my face. I couldn’t feel my cheeks as I smiled, bracing myself. It was the same sinking, sick feeling I had with Uncle Jack a month ago. The laughter bubbled under the surface. I could feel it coming.

“Fire, but not brimstone,” Melinda said in a way that questioned the possibility.

Then it started. Todd snorted and the teacher, Ms. Matheson, barked a laugh over the snickering that was growing so sinisterly in volume. She clapped her hands over her mouth and composed herself to say, “There is no shame in any kryptonite! Hush! Quiet! My weakness is lead!”

She reached into her purse beside her — I’d thought she was just kind of weird to keep her purse with her in this situation — and pulled out a key ring with no keys attached to it, but several irregularly shaped rocks that must have been made of lead. She certainly hefted it as if it weighed a ton. “I can’t wear lead against my skin because it would poison me like a regular person, beyond taking my pyrokinesis away.”

The laughter died down with the interest in the new distraction. I thought of getting up and walking out, but Ms. Matheson continued and I had to hear. “I have to carry these pieces of lead with me at all times so I can get to them in an emergency, like a diabetic or something. I can’t even put this charm as far away from me as the conveyor belt when I go through airport security. Believe me, that can add to the difficulties of a trip.” Then she smiled so sweet and silly at all the newbies, they had to chuckle the way you might at a cute baby.

I loved Ms. Matheson then. She looked into my eyes and I could tell that was exactly what she wanted — a new friend from among the outcasts. She must be a weirdo in her life, too, with no friends her own age. I looked away and stayed quiet, hoping no one would remember me for the rest of the orientation. When Todd and Ms. Matheson finished explaining about curfews and hall passes and field trips, I stood up as slowly as I could, my every movement calling attention, in my mind, anyway. They were commencing a ritual of significance I didn’t learn until later and didn’t notice me slip out. Without a hall pass. [...]

What adventures will Kelly get herself into? Waterfire is a humorous, dramatic, and engaging novella and also a love poem to Providence, Rhode Island.

Though Waterfire isn't available yet, I do have other books with a similar flair available now. 

And I'm at jessicaknauss.blogspot.com, Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks for letting me share!

November Recap

In November, I've done a few things, including:

I met my NaNoWriMo challenge goal and wrote 25,000 words for Waterfire, Part II of the Providence Trilogy Awash in Talent, converting it officially into a novella. More on that later!

I cut more than 2,000 words from my epic Seven Noble Knights (while keeping the old copy just in case) as well as cutting a few words from the title. I sent out a few query letters, got a few rejections, and a few leads.

I edited and copyedited and proofread my story, "Axe Man," for the anthology A World of Joy (debuting soon!).

Rare photo of a male Javan rhino. IRF

My husband and I decided to celebrate the holidays by giving. We chose to donate to the International Rhino Foundation because of all the organizations we looked into, the money seemed to go the farthest with them. It is my fond hope that our small amount of cash will make a difference in the lives of the most endangered, largest land mammals on Earth, Javan rhinoceroses. We also decided to "adopt" a Sumatran rhino through the World Wildlife Fund because we couldn't resist the swag! Merry Christmas and prosperous 2014!

Yours truly with WWF Adoption swag, an
achingly cute (and hairy) Sumatran rhino plush. We'll put
him back in the bag to open on Christmas.

In other rhino-related news, I wrote five pieces of flash fiction in October, in honor of the five surviving species of rhinoceros, and submitted them to an anthology after polishing them in November. My husband loves these little vignettes and I hope at least one of them is accepted. They will be added to the Rhinoceros Dreams omnibus in the future.

I haven't moved yet, so that's still hanging over me like the Sword of Damocles. There was a lot going on at Loose Leaves, too, enough for a full time job!

For the month of December, this blog will be celebrating books! I'll have interviews with six of the authors from the new free holiday anthology, A World of Joy, and at the end of the month, for the third year, the annual Knauss Awards.

In December, I'll also be taking a course in writing magical realism. I'll be sure to let you know how that went in January. Thanks for stopping by — see you again soon!

The Votes Are In...

Thanks to everyone who let me know what they would prefer to read, here or via Facebook or Twitter. I read a lot of helpful comments and learned something about my readers, so that's always a wonderful experience!

The overwhelming vote was for the firestarters.

I'm really excited to go full out on this story and finish it! It's conceived as a companion to "Middle Awash in Talent," which is now going to be called "Hope & Benevolent." It takes place in a world where most things are just like they are in our daily world, but the general population is joined by people with three different kinds of Talents: telekinesis, pyrokinesis (firestarter talent), and psychics.

Because these powers manifest in members of otherwise normal families when the child is in his or her early teens, these stories are YA or NA and most characters are 13 to 20 years old. Once I finish this one, I plan to start a third story, about psychics. No promises that I'll be able to start it in November, but that would be the ideal.

Otherwise, this series of long stories, which I will put together in a single book when they're all complete, is intended as a celebration of Providence, Rhode Island, where I spent some of my formative years among college students. So the series will be called PROVIDENCE and this firestarter story, "Waterfire."

Waterfire is a real-life art installation I can't wait to describe for you in the story. Suffice to say for now that it's amazing.

Time to get to work! These pictures are sure inspiring. The blog will be confined to practical updates and supercool announcements about publications. (Watch for those!) Otherwise, I'll see you again in December!