Stories From The Stacks

Beginnings

In my working life, I was a library paraprofessional working mostly in public libraries. You meet all walks of life in libraries; anyone from moms bringing in their kids to storytime to college students needing research help. I’ve done it all; created and run kids and teens programs to doing better research than the librarian hired for the job in a community college.

Let’s start at the beginning;

Basic; I’m a reader, have been all my life. In fact, my mom got a bit mad at my 2nd grade teacher because she blamed him for sparking my interest to the point where I isolated myself all the time with a book. To be honest, I think he just revealed the hermit in me. Trust me, the hermit doesn’t hide all that well.

When we moved from the suburbs of Long Island NY to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, one of the first things I did was find two places; the hospital and the library.

My kids were young; 4 years and 6 months so most of the books I got were for me. Kids in bed, I’d sit in a comfy chair and read for several hours. After living in Virginia for a few years, we added a new child and some goats. And I started bringing the kids to more programs.

The library was looking for volunteers when my youngest was about a year old so I signed up. After a few months of shelving, learning the circulation desk and computer program, I was asked if I wanted to apply for a new part time paid position. Getting paid for doing something I love??? Sign me up.

The hours were two evenings and Sunday afternoons. Easy timeline for a mom with kids. My friends all nodded and said “That’s the job for her.” I haven’t looked back.

Marketing

 
Marketing
Aug 26, 2025View in app Who’da thunk it? Writing isn’t all writers have to do. Yeah, editing is included in the writing and I kinda like editing. It’s like taking a painting or clay sculpture and adding details that make it, in the words of my artist daughter, POP. The part few, if any, writers knew about before we embarked on this adventure, was that if we wanted to share it, we had to know how to market. And let me tell you, it’s a learning curve even harder than writing. At least with writing I can believe I have some talent. I’m clueless with marketing. So I’ve been working and learning. Here’s the latest for my upcoming YA fantasy called Dragon Dreams. It’s a collage of the characters in the book.

Publishing Dragon Dreams

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Gonna publish Dragon Dreams. I’ve found a small press publisher and we are in prep mode. Both for getting the manuscript ready and spreading the word. I’m excited. And I feel a bit like I’ve been thrown into a lake and I’m not that good at swimming. Which is why I’m going with a professional.

I have created a logo to represent my brand. Now to work on other elements. The cover is created and will soon be ready for a cover reveal. I’m learning about Canva and Pinterest so there will be more images in my posts.

Dragon Dreams will soon be a reality!

Marketing Dragon Dreams

Gonna dive into the self publishing world once again. I’ve learned a bit since my first two books, Eternal Diet and its sequel You Are What You Eat, sank into the pit of Amazon anonymity. I’ve started a series of posts with art related to each character in the book to introduce them to potential readers.

Lest you’ve forgotten, or more likely never knew, Dragon Dreams is the story of Addy, an 11 year old girl who, for reasons you will learn, does not know she is a dragon.

How would you know if you were a dragon?

Addy lives in the backwoods with her family, but she has always felt like she didn’t belong, as if her body was somehow different. As she grew older, she discovered that her body could do incredible things like jump 15 feet and heal from thorn cuts. Special powers she has kept secret from everyone but her sister.

Then one day, a traveling circus comes to town, bringing with it a strange man who claims to be her father. He convinces Addy to join him in search of their original home.

Along for the adventure is her sister, Eleanor; a sprite named Rime who claims to not be Jack Frost, her intriguing dog who seems to know more than a dog should, and a group of little folk called the Nunnehi.

Addy’s own mother, the dragon that drove her father to flee with her when she was a newly hatched infant is their target. She won’t give up her hoard and home easily.

First up for intro is, of course, Addy herself.

Aloha

Still waiting to hear if my fifty page submission will evolve to a request for more. Sure hope so. Meanwhile, I have started a Big Island centered murder mystery. And, since I love fantasy so much, the Hawaiian little people the Menehune, are featured. This one is in 1st person and I find I enjoy that pov.

One reason I’ve not been here much is I’ve run into some health issues. What I thought was discomfort from anxiety has ended up being an adventure in open heart surgery. When I mentioned to my primary care doc about the pressure in my chest, he sent me to a cardiologist, who sent me to another one across the island for tests. This ended up with me in Maui Memorial for a double bypass. I knew women had milder symptoms than men but come on! All I felt was a little pressure and occasional breathlessness! No pain, no numbness, no dizziness.

I’m home now, recovering and keeping a log of my experience. Perhaps it can be a memoir of my heart journey.

Kauai Writers Conference

I attended the Kauai Writers Conference a few weeks ago and what a fantastic experience it was! Living in such a rural area of the Big Island means I don’t get to meet a lot of people, let alone writers with the same interests as me. It can get a bit lonely.

That’s why I went to this conference; to meet other writers, put faces to names I knew through the Hawaii Writers Guild, and pick up some tips from the workshops. And, as my daughter said, have a bougie vacation. It was expensive and I’m not sure when I can go next, but I hope to go again eventually.

Another reason I went was to pitch my middle grade fantasy Dragon Dreams to some agents. I did that. At first, I’d heard that the agent wasn’t taking on new clients and felt disappointed. But, I figured, it nothing else, the experience would be good practice. So I polished the pitch, sat in front of the lovely agent and pitched into my pitch.

A wonderful thing happened. We connected. Ms R asked about the book, what other writing experience I had, and how I liked living in Hawaii. When she started talking about future projects, I got a strange feeling; did she like my pitch enough to want to read the book? She did. She asked for fifty pages. My feet didn’t touch the ground for the rest of the day.

Now I wait. Meanwhile I just sent my query to three recommended agents. Wish me luck.

Volunteering

Volunteering at the community center is turning out to be a great idea. Wednesday is my day as receptionist and I get to talk to lots of folks. Still learning the ropes; apparently I forgot to write some money received into a log book and the treasurer had to reconcile it. My excuse is there was a line of people wanting to buy tickets to the event! They were practically throwing the money at me! And if you know me, you know my ability with numbers. Or lack thereof. lol.

Today I started work on reorganizing the library non fiction section. Everything we have is donations and second hand, from the books to the bookshelves. Some books come from books withdrawn from libraries, and some are simple donations. Which means that a lot of them have no Dewey decimal number labels. Which means that I have to call on my library experience to remember what goes where.

I weeded a bunch of old, way way way out of date books. Encyclopedia Britannica from 1975 level old. Since shifting the books is gonna happen, I am trying to at least group sections together on a shelf that has been recently designated for non fiction instead of donations.

Since cook books were one of the most popular topics in my old library, I started with them. There was a boat load in the community library, so getting them sorted was a good start and cleared some shelves from the shelving unit they want to remove.

When I asked the lady who is in charge of the library what to throw out and how they wanted the ‘cataloging’ to go, she said to use my best judgement. So I am. Cookbooks are now arranged; General all purpose, healthy eating, vegetarians, meat lovers, famous chefs, baking, regional and machine related as in microwave or crockpot type books.

Not the way they are in a regular library but I am using the best logic I can. No doubt it will change when things settle into their final spot on all the shelves. Where they are now, is really more of a place holder than final destination.