Writer? Yes. Famous?

Today I'd like to unpack the title of my blog. I think we can all agree that I am a writer. All I have to do in order to call myself a writer is write. Granted, my first year of being a full-time writer, I mostly just dreamed about my historical novel without a clue as to how it would ever get written. But I have written articles and fiction (many of which are linked at the Good Reading page to your left), not to mention a lot of words on this blog, so, that half of the title is a given.

Now on to "famous." I'm not actually famous. Gasp! I explained this designation in my first post as more or less a delusion from my childhood. I was famous in my own mind when I declared myself as such for the reasons in the post, but mostly because everyone I knew, knew that I wrote. To me, a famous writer is the kind of person you can ask anyone on the street about and get a decent response, along the lines of "Everyone knows who she is! Jessica Knauss is the author of Tree/House, many short stories, and the silly YA series Sailing Italy."Back when I called myself a famous writer, you could have gotten a similar answer from any of the several adults who knew me, therefore, I was famous. And the blog title has its own kind of validity, independent of how my career goes from here.

But lingering behind "famous" is its partner, "rich." If "rich" is a requirement for "famous," then I definitely am not now and may never be. I'm not getting paid much at all for my writing (copies of the magazines I appear in, sometimes a five dollar honorarium I prize like a pot of gold). My husband recently got a raise, so we can breathe just a little easier, but it's not enough to go back to Pennsylvania and get our furniture and books, so I still feel pretty poor. I couldn't afford to go to Oregon to meet my amazing fans. We had to save up for a trip to the Spanish restaurant, for goodness sake. We hunch over to eat because we decided the one table we could afford worked best as a computer desk (what a relief that was!). We choose Crunchy Oat Squares instead of Life cereal. I'm grateful for the deliciously nutritious Crunchy Oat Squares, because some people can't even afford them, but I hope I'm making the point that we are not rich.

"Rich" lingers around "famous" because people figure that if everyone knows who you are, then someone must be paying you a lot of money. This is true in enough of the cases I've seen to convince me that if I can ever get people on the street to recognize my name, I'll already have several bestsellers and movie deals.

Bestsellers and movie deals are not easy to come by, just to clarify.

I wanted to point out that I'm not famous for the sake of people who click over here from other countries, like Moldova and Ghana, using the keywords "famous writer." Sorry folks. I really appreciate your clicks! You can say you knew me when.

Sail To Italy Excerpt Trailer and Release Date Info

For your viewing pleasure, a trailer/excerpt from Sail To Italy. This conversation takes place in the first chapter, when Princess Noreena is desperate to find the man she thinks killed her father, Giovanni Redicci. Lucky Pirate Pierre is there to help her... for a price. The excerpt should give a sense of how silly and fun this thing is going to be. Watch below or here. Noreena really should be younger and have black hair, and Pierre should be a bit more piratey, but these were the best stand-ins the Lego actor's guild could provide.

You can finally see for yourself how silly it all is on April 18. Sail To Italy will become available that day, just in time for Easter presents. It will cost only 99 cents (they won't let me make it any cheaper). And then the news gets even better! Sail To Italy has an even more exciting and more romantic sequel, Sail From Italy, in which all the main characters get to take a (not terribly glamourous) trip to Spain. Sail From Italy will be available April 19, and again, cost only 99 cents. You never had such inexpensive fun.

The grand finale release will be a combined Sail To Italy and Sail From Italy, April 20, for the low price of only $1.49, so if you can wait, this is your bargain option. Two epic adventures for happy, carefree reading, all for less than the price of a cup of coffee. Too generous? Perhaps. It's all because I love my readers.

Here's the cover of Sail From Italy, for your preview pleasure.

Six Sentence Sunday 4

I may have made a mistake with my last six sentences, unintentionally grossing everyone out with some of the scariest imagery in the entire book. I recently decided the rotting corpse dream is the central image of the book, but in my interpretation, it represents Emma getting ready to leave her dull, dead past behind and start to really live -- to experience rebirth, in a way. I've decided to try to redeem Tree/House this week and start at the beginning. Nothing comes before these six sentences, although you'll notice the theme of death already! Someone should write at least a term paper on this...

                    * * *

The funeral procession Emma had always imagined involved slow pallbearers winding through narrow streets, drizzle, and many women in black cloaks choking back their grief.  She had planned in great detail the way Franklin’s cedar coffin would slide into the ground and the way the moist earth would sound as it fell on top. She would carry white lilies and her grandmother would be there to support her should she faint. Maybe she would carry smelling salts. After that, her plans ended abruptly because what does one do after a funeral, after all.

         The true funeral had involved only Franklin’s mother, the servants, and Emma, without lilies. 
                    * * *

Check out the other wonderful participants' excerpts here. Next Sunday, the excerpt that can be gross... if you want it to be...

Author Pages

Today is the day the Secret Society of Literary Divas of St. Helens, Oregon will meet about Tree/House! Enjoy, ladies! I would join you if I could!

I recently created an author fan page for myself at Facebook (which you can like simply by clicking on the Facebook box on the left of your screen!) which I don't consider a success because only one person other than me is a fan. I'm not sure how to get more fans other than giving away prizes, which I can't afford, but that's okay. I'm happy to remain a regular networking writer with friends instead of fans on Facebook.

But, now I've created an author page on Amazon.com, and I have to say, it's really cool. It has nice pictures of little me, a couple of videos (I hope to post more soon), a never-before-seen, friendly autobiography, a blog feed, and all my books available at Amazon on one page. That's right, it will list Sail To Italy right there when its released! There's even space for listing events, if I ever get to do a reading or signing or anything else. I hope the page is welcoming and encourages readers to contact me if that's what they want. Goodness knows, I exist as an author to give the readers what they want. So tell me what you want, and I'll do my best for you. Enjoy the author page, which I'll update whenever appropriate.

Happy Rhinos

These are a couple of happy rhinos, the sister pair at the Phoenix zoo. They're happy because they have each other, and, appropriately, because I'm getting a rhinoceros story published not once, but twice!

I'm talking about the tale of the shrinking rhinoceros, a microfiction I've mentioned before. I wrote it upon having a dream in Pennsylvania, and have been confounded that I haven't been able to find a home for it. So now, it's found not one home, but two, through the virtue of editing and retitling. One version is called "A Business Venture in Glue," and the other "Rhinoceros Crash." Both are coming out soon. More information to come! Also look forward to excerpts of yet more versions of the "Rhinoceros Crash."

Teaser Trailer for Sail To Italy

To better embrace my new YA status (it's just a label to help people find writing they like, after all) I've decided to work on an adventure story I've had in my bag of tricks for years now, Sail To Italy. Don't worry, all the other projects are still going strong... whew!

Here's the first teaser to let you know what Sail To Italy's all about. I mean no insult to Winston Churchill. I only used him because he's dressed all in black. More to come soon!

Or click here.

The cover, for your preview pleasure. I love the peninsula-swirl design!

Third Six Sentence Sunday

Thanks so much to everyone who's visited my other Six Sentence Sunday posts, and especially you spunky commentators! It's been incredibly inspiring. Readers, find the other participants here.

In honor of the imminent meeting of the St. Helens Secret Society of Literary Divas (Book Club), this excerpt comes from my Tree/House, page 95 of the print edition.  Here, Emma, the protagonist, is dreaming she's on top of a rocky cliff on which hundreds of putrefying bodies are waiting to die. She herself has rotted to the point of missing her right arm and both legs. It's a positive image, really!

                         * * *

He replied before she asked, "To die, you must lie perfectly still, but it's hard. I've been trying for years."

"But Emma, why do you want to die?" asked a young woman in the earliest stages of putrefaction. "You have so much going for you."

Emma wondered what she had that they didn't. Most of them still had all their limbs at least.

                        * * *

Try Tree/House for your book club today! Only $2.99 for the Kindle edition of this inspiring work! Ask me about discounted signed paperback copies and free bookmarks for your club: tree.house.a.novella at gmail dot com.