Book Marketing Tips: Sold By Author

I keep detailed sales records so that I’m ready for tax reports at the end of the year. I track paperback books and Kindle books sold. I also have a category called Sold By Author. The books in this category are the ones I peddled at personal appearances. In most cases, I must collect state sales tax and turn it in to the state at the end of the year.

I’ve tried many ways to reach buyers this way because it is more than just selling a few books. It is a way of selling yourself. Some people may stop by and then go home and buy the Kindle edition. That’s fine.

There are book fairs where you rent space. Or, you may be asked to speak somewhere and then sell your books at the end of your presentation. I like this approach.

For the past year, a friend and I have had a book signing table in an area where people wait for a table at a popular restaurant. They charge us $30 for three hours. We split the cost. I may sale three to fifteen books and my friend, who has children’s books, usually sales twice as many. It is hard to find places like this, but if you can, it is worth it.

When you evaluate how to do this, consider the cost. I've found the cost often exceeds the benefits. For example, the annual Texas Book Fair (http://www.texasbookfestival.org/) is huge. It lasts for two days and draws around tens of thousands of people. However, that means it can charge huge fees. Much of the space goes to large publishers and bestselling authors. I managed to get half a table for a few hours one year as the result of a drawing held by the Writers League of Texas. I didn't sell enough books to cover the cost, but it was fun.

You may find some friends and get a table together and share the cost. It helps to have others with you anyway. I had a table in a book fair a couple of years back and managed to get it free for giving a talk to the group on selling books. Book fairs are only good if the organizers can get the customers there.

My friend and I set up a table at an annual Harvest Fest hosted by a church in town. There is no fee, but they expect us to tithe. That is, we pay them ten percent of our sales. Sales are good and I wish we had more opportunities like this.

Stand in front of the table if possible, to draw people in. Get the book into every visitor's hand if you can. If they turn the book over, be quiet while they read the blurb. I presign all the books to save time but will add their name if they ask. Have a similar pen ready.

We try to get email addresses from buyers, so we can add them to our mailing lists. One way to do so is if they pay by credit card. You can send them a receipt by email. Another way is to hold drawings for free books to get names and e-mail addresses.

Have displays and handouts available. I use business cards, bookmarks, flyers, posters, and other handouts.

A poster could be an enlargement of your book cover mounted on poster board. I use them at book signings to draw attention. Most print shops can make these for you. Business cards and bookmarks can be handed out at book signings, especially to those who didn't buy a book. I notice e-book sales increase after an appearance and I suspect some of those sales were due to the handouts.

I bought a tee shirt with the book cover on the front of two of my books. I’ve sold a few extra books due to the shirts.  

Before you participate in a personal appearance check to see if it is okay to sell books after your talk. Next, learn how to prepare for such events. For my first personal appearance I did an Internet search on "preparing for a book signing event" and found many useful pages of information. Still, it is a challenge to be prepared for anything. I did a book signing in the historic Clarksville neighborhood of Austin and almost blew away.

I grew up in Clarksville and used the neighborhood in my books. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to participate in the annual event. That was when I only had one book. Exhibitor tables were inexpensive and there were several events scheduled to draw visitors. Suddenly a strong wind came up. The table cloth I had brought took sail. I grabbed it and held it down until the wind subsided long enough for me to find a few rocks to weigh it down. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. I only sold one book during that long, hot, windy day, but attending was worth it. I made a connection with the pastor of the church there and he has helped me with book sales since then.

At another book signing, this time at the Harker Heights Public Library, I met several writers who became friends. Watch for networking opportunities at all your book signings and other personal appearances.

One thing you may want to take with you to these events is snack food and a bottle of water. If the signing lasts for a long time, the hosts may provide drinks and sometimes something to eat. But, it wouldn't hurt to take your own just in case.

Take change with you. In Texas, we must charge sales tax anytime we sell books. What I do is change the price of my books so that the price plus the tax comes out to an even amount. In my case, my books sell for $10.00 ($9.24 plus .76 tax).

To compute the selling price so that it plus tax is equal to $10.00 I divided 10.00 by 1.0825 since our sales tax rate is 8.25 percent. You can compute your round-figure price by changing the 10.00 to what you want and dividing by 1.(your sales tax rate). Mathematically, the formula I used for my price and rate is:

X + 0.0825X = 10 (X is the new price for the book)

1.0825X = 10 (the tax rate is 8.25 percent)

X = 10/1.0825

X = 9.2378… (round this to 9.24)

To compute the tax, multiply 9.24 times 0.0825 and you get 0.76.

The price of the book plus the sales tax is 9.24 plus 0.76, or 10.00.

These special personal appearance prices are less than the Amazon price so the customer is happy and I still make a profit. I also am prepared to take credit cards. It is easy now to use a smartphone or a tablet with a credit card reader that is provided free. You do have to pay a fee to the company you're using. I use Square. There are other methods available.

Consider partnering with another writer. It is sometimes easier to sell another person's book. Some of us find it difficult to brag about our own.

Stick a bookmark in each book sold. Especially if you have several books. Have a handout ready for those who don't buy, perhaps something that emphasizes an e-book edition of your books that they may order later.

Don't feel disappointed if you don't sell as many books as you'd like. Part of the reason for a book signing is to build name recognition. You may sell books later as a result of the book signing event.

More Austin Memories in Love Lives On

The latest bookmobile novel, Love Lives On, takes place in Austin, Texas, mostly. So why the photo of Bruges, Belgium on the cover? Bruges is where Brian and Karen go for their honeymoon.

I said mostly Austin, because Brian goes back to California a few times to visit his parents. Mainly because the book is about Karen. Also, there are a few scenes in Sunset Valley, which is technically not a part of Austin even though it is surrounded by Austin. The married couple also stop in Hildesheim, Germany for a night.

After the wedding Karen moves into Brian's place on Mt. Bonnell Road near Dry Creek Cafe. If you read Where Love Once Lived, you know this is the place where the Combine rented a cabin when they were students at the University of Texas back in the 1970's.

There are scenes at the Austin History Center, a fictional law office on Congress Avenue, Allandale mall and references to the Austin Public Library, Travis County Courthouse, Wooldridge Park, MoPac, 35th Street, Sun City Texas, Georgetown, Thundercloud Subs and Dr Pepper, a Texas favorite.

Several scenes take place in Clarksville, where Brian's best friend Phil lives with his wife Kay. His dad George, who played a prominent role in Where Love Once Lived, lives in an apartment out back and manages to help Karen in Love Lives On.

Smoking Grapevine and Other Memories of Growing Up in Austin Texas

In Where Love Once Lived, one of my characters lives in the Clarksville area of Austin, a neighborhood reserved for blacks only back when I lived there. I lived on a white street, but my backyard was adjacent to the backyard of a black family. I don't remember anything about the parents of that family, not sure I ever saw them. But, I did talk to the children. We would often meet at the wire fence and stare at each for awhile until we finally got into a normal childhood conversation. I'm not sure how old I was, but since my family moved from there in 1946, I had to be about nine years old.

In future posts I'll tell you more about living near Clarksville because it made a big impression on me. However, today I would like to tell you about the move to South Austin. Back then, and to a certain extent now, South Austin was like a separate town from Austin. I remember telling my girlfriend goodbye because I was moving so far away I knew I'd never see her again. Lajuana Jolly. I bought her a necklace so she'd always remember me. As it turned out, we were together again in high school, but by then our love had died.

Checking Google Maps, I see that it is only 2.3 miles from the Clarksville area to where we moved on Josephine Street. Today, I walk further than that for exercise.

The nearest grocery store from the Josephine house was on Kinney Avenue and it was the size of a two-car garage. Maybe smaller. Mother would send me to the store nearly every day to get groceries. We had a charge account there. They would give me whatever was on the shopping list and then Dad would go in on Saturday to pay for the week's purchases. I would often sneak a candy bar on to the list so I didn't mind doing the shopping.

One day, a neighborhood friend went with me and he showed me a shortcut to the grocery store through a wooded area. Right in the middle of the forest he stopped and pulled out a knife. I didn't know what was going on and thought I better get out of there. But before I could move, he grabbed a thick piece of grapevine and cut off a few inches of it, stuck it in his mouth and lit the other end just like adults did with cigarettes. He took a few puffs, coughed, and passed it to me.

There were many interesting childhood times while I lived in the Josephine house. I wish I could put them in the book along with the Clarksville story. But, I'll tell you more here in the future.

Smoking grapevine is not smart, but it is not as serious as what our children and grandchildren face today. Did you have similar temptations when you grew up?

Bicycling Memories of Austin, Texas

A year or so ago, I pedaled around Sun City in Georgetown, Texas for my health. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have gone quite so far the day after donating two pints of blood. Also, if I had it to do over again, I would have eaten breakfast first or at least had some orange juice. I thought about all this while parked on the side of the road trying to decide if I should call 911 or just fall down and hope someone found me.

After some deep breaths, staying close to the flower garden at the woodworking shop in case I had to throw up, I managed to get past the nausea. I had already thought of a way to hold on to the branch of a tree for support if needed. But soon, I felt better and was back on the bike heading for home.

Perhaps I was delirious, but as I rode the rest of the way (mostly downhill, by the way), I had vivid memories of bike riding as a kid. I remember sneaking off when I lived near Clarksville in Austin, so I couldn't have been more than nine years old. My friend, Bobby Bayer, went with me. We told our parents we were just going to see someone a few blocks away and we ended up in deep South Austin. I felt terribly guilty for lying to my mother. But not guilty enough to keep me from repeating the trip several more times on other days.

Those memories and reminders of the guilt I felt, made me think about Brian, the male protagonist in Where Love Once Lived. Don't forget I said I may have been delirious at the time all this was going through my head.

In the novel, Brian had been brought up in a Christian family and attended church every Sunday. What's more, he loved to go to church and continued to go while he was away from his California home attending the University of Texas. Then, he committed a sin and, even though he knew better, the guilt is so strong he believes he is being punished by God. His punishment is to be in a loveless marriage.

He drops out of church for the next thirty years. This is all leading up to my wanting to tell you this is not a biographical story. It didn't happen to me. I was brought up in a Christian home and while there were some times in my life where I missed church because Sunday mornings were the only time I could rest, I never left the church completely the way Brian did in the story.

I am still friends with some of the people I met at church as a youth and we still get together frequently. I continued to be involved in church in college and while in the marines. After marriage and kids there were times when I wasn't involved as much as I should have been, but that didn't last long. I may tell you about that period of my life someday, if I'm ever delirious again.

How about you? When did God become a major part of your life? Have you ever dropped out? What brought you back?

Austin, the Friendly City

Where Love Once Lived is set in the current time in Austin, Texas. However, the male protagonist has lived in California for the past thirty years and his memory of Austin is different than the way the city is today. It doesn't bother him that Austin's slogan has changed from Austin the Friendly City to Keep Austin Weird. He doesn't even notice. He finds the place on Dry Creek near Mt. Bonnell Road where he and his college buddies rented a cabin and he builds his house there, including a replica of the cabin that had fallen to the ground from decay. Brian is determined to recapture his youth, and marry his college sweetheart. He buys a bookmobile, because that was the last place where he had been with Karen, and makes a deal with the city to try it for a year as long as he pays the expenses.

In addition to the cabin, scenes take place at an elementary school built in the 1950's, Mt. Bonnell, Clarksville, and the city library (the old one, not the new one), the University of Texas campus, and Manor.

It was fun revisiting the Austin of the past while writing the book, and I hope you'll enjoy reading about it. I was born in Austin and went through school there. I joined the marines after learning I wasn't ready for college, and didn't get back to Austin for 20 plus years. It had changed so much by then I hardly knew where I was. But, it didn't matter. Everywhere I went I could see and feel the past, the place where the memories lived. Once, I told an old friend I'd meet him at the drug store. When we both got there, we noticed the corner we'd been thinking about was now a strip mall and there wasn't a drug store anywhere near there. Another fun thing is that we, my buddies and I, know routes through town that newcomers don't.

How about you? Have you experienced a change in your life or your surroundings that made you wish for the good old days? Were the good old days as good as you remember? How do you handle change? Do you embrace it or fight it? Place is not as important as who you are. You can take your beliefs and faith in God wherever you go. Likewise, you can't move to another place to get away from problems. They go with you, too.

In Where Love Once Lived, Brian never recaptures his youth, of course, because that's impossible. But he does learn that what he was searching for was the love of God.

Book Signing: Clarksville Family Fun Fest

In Where Love Once Lived the male protagonist is white and his best friend is black. I'm not sure how that happened, but it made the story more interesting by providing thoughts about race relations.

In the following excerpt Brian is the white friend, Mr. McCullough, who is black, is the seventy-eight year old father of Brian's best friend and Cindy is Mr. McCullough's granddaughter who is about to announce her engagement to a white man:

"It's called historical, now," Mr. McCullough said holding a fork in the air. "It use' to be a ghetto, you know." He glanced at Brian. "I don't guess Cindy told you that. Most of the Negroes lived east of Austin, but there was a colony here in Clarksville."

Mr. McCullough continued. "When I was growin' up, there were boundaries, you see. We couldn't jus' live anywhere we wanted. Ever'one knew where the lines were. Our street here was as far south as we could live."

He shook his head. "Today, it doesn't matter. No one's shocked when black and white marry, even." He locked eyes with Brian, then moved his gaze to Cindy.

"When was this neighborhood a ghetto, Grandpa?" Cindy asked. "I've heard the story, but I think Brian would like to hear about it, too."

"Let's see." He touched a thumb to his fingers. "I'd say up until sometime in the 1950s." He pointed south. "Over at Mathews School, on 9 ½ Street, that was white. Our lot touched up to a white family's back yard." He laughed. "I'd forgotten about that. Fact is, back in the 1930's or 40's, I use' to play with the little kid who lived there. Well, not play, really. We mos'ly jus' talked through the chicken wire. My Mama and Daddy told me not to, but I did anyway."

In real life, I'm the one in his seventies who lived in the Clarksville area at the time. These are my memories. The difference is I lived on the white side of the border.

It's different there now. Sunday, April 17, 2011, I was invited to set up a booth in the artisans area at the annual Clarksville Family Fun Fest to sell books. I took a map showing the five places where I lived between 1936 and 1945 to show my credibility to be there. The map only brought up exclamations of how young I look.

I left only two books there. One I donated to the Silent Auction sold for $8.00, and the other I donated to the pastor of the Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church.

Rev. Steve Manning, the pastor of the church had stopped by to talk about the book and the history of Clarksville. When he returned later with his checkbook, I told him I wanted to donate the book to him for the church. He let me know he was prepared to pay for the book, but I told him I had donated copies of the book to other churches in Austin and Georgetown and it only seemed right to donate one to the church in the area where several scenes of the book take place.  He promised to read the book and let me know his thoughts about it.

After the Clarksville Family Fun Fest was over I drove by each of the places I had lived. I was flooded with memories, not just of the segregation that existed then, but I remembered World War II, going to school for the first time, the Confederate Home that abutted up to the end of the street, my childhood friends I biked with, my sister Barbara who took me school, my cousins who visited, the chickens and ducks we raised in the back yard, the time spent with my father, the birth of my sister Patty. So many wonderful memories of the time.

A few negative experiences popped into my head as well, such as cutting my arm on a broken coffee jar in the vacant lot playing soldier with Billy T. Nitschke, cutting my hair, eating an April Fool's Day sandwich filled with cotton made by my sister Barbara, falling on a sidewalk while running to meet my dad when he got home from work.

The memories of the time I lived in the area were good for me, but the Clarksville of today is not the same as it was when I lived there. People of all races without an apparent notice of the fact played side by side. The woman at the church's booth displayed historical photos showing an all-black church membership, but the church today stressed that it is a church for everyone in the area.

Rev. Manning is a 58-year old black man born in Louisiana and brought up in Lockhart, Texas, with a year in Oakland, California, just long enough to become an A's fan, a fact that was advertised on the shirt he wore. His degree is in biology, but he had a calling to preach. He said it was not the clear spoken calling some get, but it was a quiet, definite one. He is the type of person I could be friends with in an instant because of his openness and warmth.

While writing Where Love Once Lived, I thought about visiting the church in Clarksville, but never did. After meeting Rev. Manning, I'm planning to visit there soon.

Growing Up White Next to a Black Neighborhood

The area of Austin called Clarksville is different than it was when I was born December 6, 1936. At that time, and up until the time we moved to South Austin in 1945, the former slave neighborhood was located between West 10th and Waterston Avenue with West Lynn Street on the east extending west to the railroad tracks that are now in the middle of MoPac.

It's hard for my children and grandchildren to understand that time in Austin's history when schools and neighborhoods were segregated by race. Only blacks lived in the area called Clarksville and the children didn't go to Mathews Elementary where my sister and I went.

My family lived in four different houses just outside the black neighborhood. At one house our backyard was up against a black family's backyard. That's where we lived when I was between five and nine, and I remember talking to some kids over that fence there often, or until my parents told me not to. Since most other blacks lived east of Austin, living where we did gave me an opportunity many white kids didn't have. I got to know some of my black neighbors, even though I had to keep it a secret from my parents.

I grew up in a segregated town, not really understanding why, and it wasn't until I was in college in 1954 that blacks in Austin began to be reluctantly accepted in some places. I left Austin in 1956 to join the marines. One of my friends was a black private from Houston. In California, we could go to restaurants together and the beach and just about anywhere we wanted. My friend rode back to Texas with me once and by the time we got to Austin, without discussing it, we started getting our food to go.

Perhaps due to my early experience growing up in Clarksville, I've always believed in equality of the races. I included a character in my novel, Where Love Once Lived, who is about my age and is black. I gave him my experiences, from the other side of the fence, however. Several scenes take place in the neighborhood, including memories of the neighborhood, Mathews School, the Confederate home, and what it was like to live in a segregated area. There is also an interracial marriage in the book.

Now, I have the opportunity to return to the neighborhood. Sunday, April 17, 2011, between 1:00 and 6:00 p.m. I'll be signing books at the Clarksville Family Fun Fest in the parking lot of the Clarksville Neighborhood Center. I know the neighborhood has changed, but it is my hope that someone who remembers that time in our history stops by the booth. I'd love to talk to someone who lived in Clarksville back in the 1940's, and most of all I'd like to hear what they think of my Clarksville fictional characters.

Book Signing Fun

Saturday night was book signing night at BookPeople in Austin. What a thrill.

This was my fifth book signing, but it was special because of the location. Driving to the bookstore for the event I was reminded that much of the book takes place less than a mile from where the bookstore is located at 6th and Lamar, near where I lived from birth until I was about nine years old. That seems young, but I have many memories of the area, especially the time when we lived on West 9 1/2 Street. That's where our house backed up to the Clarksville area, which at the time was a Black neighborhood. In my novel, Where Love Once Lived, George McCullough, the 78-year old Black man, has my memories of the time when I lived there.

The book signing was also special because it was my first in Austin and I got to see some old friends. It was a rainy Saturday night so I didn't expect many people to venture out. I was surprised by the number who did. I only wish I had had more time to talk to some of the friends I hadn't seen in years.

I was paired with another local author, Jennifer Hritz, and we were given 15 to 20 minutes to talk about our book or read an excerpt. After that time, we met with the audience and signed books.

I spoke first and told about how the idea for the book first came to me while driving a bookmobile back in the 1960's, and how the story changed as I took writing classes. I then read the beginning of the book up to the point where Karen takes her class to the bookmobile for the first time. Next, I read the Great Chase scene. I was pleased the chase scene provoked some laughter because I meant it to be funny. Afterward, I told them the main reason for the chase scene was to knock some books to the floor, but I didn't tell them why.

BookPeople is the largest independent bookstore in Texas, and we had an audience of at least 30 people. Many well-known authors schedule stops there. Earlier in the day, Patton Oswalt had drawn a large crowd when he talked about his book, Zombie Spaceship. If you don't know who he is, perhaps you'll remember him as Spence in The King of Queens.

All in all it was a wonderful night.

Racism is Alive and Well, Unfortunately

Shouts of racism are in the news every day now even though you'd think we'd be way past that here in 2011. The old saying, what would Jesus do, comes to mind.

In my book, Where Love Once Lived, the male protagonist is white and his best friend is black. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did make the story more interesting. I'm sure it has a lot to do with my personal beliefs. However, how does a writer who believes in equality, write about people of different races without sounding like he or she is emphasizing the differences? Ideally, race wouldn't be mentioned. This might work in a movie or TV show, but in the black and white of a book, how do you show the black and white of the characters?

I grew up in Austin, Texas during the segregation period, and use the father of one of the characters in the book to tell about some of my experiences of that time. I turned one story upside down, letting a black character tell about his experiences. As George McCullough, now in his seventies, describes his experience back in the 1930-40's with segregation, I'm the white boy he refers to. Well, as far as fiction allows.

"It's called historical, now," Mr. McCullough said holding a fork in the air. "It use' to be a ghetto, you know." He glanced at Brian. "I don't guess Cindy told you that. Most of the Negroes lived east of Austin, but there was a colony here in Clarksville."

Mr. McCullough continued. "When I was growin' up, there were boundaries, you see. We couldn't jus' live anywhere we wanted. Ever'one knew where the lines were. Our street here was as far south as we could live."

He shook his head. "Today, it doesn't matter. No one's shocked when black and white marry, even." He locked eyes with Brian, then moved his gaze to Cindy.

"When was this neighborhood a ghetto, Grandpa?" Cindy asked. "I've heard the story, but I think Brian would like to hear about it, too."

"Let's see." He touched a thumb to his fingers. "I'd say up until sometime in the 1950s." He pointed south. "Over at Mathews School, on 9 ½ Street, that was white. Our lot touched up to a white family's back yard." He laughed. "I'd forgotten about that. Fact is, back in the 1930's or 40's, I use' to play with the little kid who lived there. Well, not play, really. We mos'ly jus' talked through the chicken wire. My Mama and Daddy told me not to, but I did anyway."

As the author, I also worried about making Mr. McCullough sound different. To make up for using the speech pattern, which I felt gave a better view of the character, later in the book, his intelligence is clearly shown.

How do you write about race differences without emphasizing the differences? What do you prefer as a reader?

Note: This is repeated from 4/1/10.

Smoking Grapevine

In Where Love Once Lived, one of my characters lives in the Clarksville area of Austin, Texas. There are references to my own experience living next to the neighborhood that was reserved for blacks only back when I was there. I lived on the white street, but our backyard was adjacent to the backyard of a black family. I don't remember anything about the parents of that family, not sure I ever saw them. But, I did talk to the children. We would often meet at the wire fence and stare at each for awhile until we finally got into a normal childhood conversation. I'm not sure how old I was, but since my family moved from there in 1946, I had to be about nine years old.

In future posts I'll tell you more about living near Clarksville because it made a big impression on me. However, today I would like to tell you about the move to South Austin. Back then, and to a certain extent now, South Austin was like a separate town from Austin. I remember telling my girlfriend goodbye. Lajuana Jolly. I bought her a necklace so she'd always remember me. But I knew I'd never see her again. After all we were moving to the other side of the river.

But we might as well have moved to another city. After the move, we only ventured out across the river when we had to go downtown. Checking Google Maps today, I see that it is only 2.3 miles from West 9 1/2 Street to Josephine Street. Today, I walk further than that for exercise.

The nearest grocery store was on Kinney Avenue and it was the size of a current day home two-car garage. Maybe smaller. Mother would send me to the store nearly every day to get groceries. We had a charge account there. They would give me what every was on the shopping list and then Dad would go in on Saturdays to pay for the week's purchases. I would often sneak in a candy bar that wasn't on the list so I didn't mind doing the shopping.

One day, a neighborhood friend went with me and he showed me a shortcut to the grocery store through a wooded area. Right in the middle of the forest he stopped and pulled out a knife. I didn't know what was going on and thought I better get out of there. But before I could move, he grabbed a thick piece of grapevine and cut off a few inches of it, stuck it in his mouth and lit the other end just like adults did with cigarettes. He took a few puffs, coughed, and passed it to me.

There were many interesting childhood times while I lived in the Josephine house. I wish I could put them in the book along with the Clarksville story. But, I'll tell you more here in the future.

Smoking grapevine is not smart, but it is not as serious as what our children and grandchildren face today. Did you have similar temptations when you grew up?

Bicycling Memories and Guilt

Today, I pedaled around Sun City in Georgetown, Texas for my health. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have gone quite so far the day after donating two pints of blood. Also, if I had it to do over again, I would have eaten breakfast first or at least had some orange juice. I thought about all this will parked on the side of the road trying to decide if I should call 911 or just throw up. After some deep breaths, staying close to the flower garden at the woodworking shop, I managed to get past the nausea. I had already thought of a way to hold on to the branch of a tree for support if needed. But soon, I felt better and was back on the bike heading for home.

Perhaps I was delirious, but as I rode the rest of the way (mostly downhill, by the way), I had vivid memories of bike riding as a kid. I remember sneaking off when I lived near Clarksville in Austin, so I couldn't have been more than nine years old. My friend, Bobby Bayer, went with me. We told our parents we were just going to see someone a few blocks away and we ended up in deep South Austin. I felt terribly guilty for lying to my mother. But not guilty enough to keep me from repeating the trip several more times.

Those memories and reminders of the guilt I felt, made me think about Brian, the male protagonist in Where Love Once Lived. Don't forget I said I may have been delirious at the time all this was going through my head.

In the novel, Brian had been brought up in a Christian family and attended church every Sunday. What's more, he loved to go to church and continued to go while he was away from his California home attending the University of Texas. Then, he commits a sin and, even though he knows better, guilt is such that he believes he is being punished by God. His punishment is to be in a loveless marriage.

He drops out of church for the next thirty years. This is all leading up to my wanting to tell you this is not a biographical story. It didn't happen to me. I was brought up in a Christian home and my life revolved around the church. I still have friends I met at church and we still get together frequently. I'll tell you more about the Combine as we go. I continued to be involved in church in college and while in the Marines. After marriage and kids there were times when I wasn't involved as much as I should have been, but that didn't last long. I may tell you about that period of my life someday, if I'm ever delirious again.

How about you? When did God become a major part of your life? Have you ever dropped out? What brought you back?

Austin, the Friendly City

Where Love Once Lived is set in the current time in Austin, Texas. However, the male protagonist has lived in California for the past thirty years and his memory of Austin is different than the way the city is today. It doesn't bother him that Austin's slogan has changed from Austin the Friendly City to Keep Austin Weird. He doesn't even notice. He finds the place on Dry Creek near Mt. Bonnell Road where he and his college buddies rented a cabin and he builds his house there, including a replica of the cabin that had fallen to the ground from decay. Brian is determined to recapture his youth, and marry his college sweetheart. He buys a bookmobile, because that was the last place where he had been with Karen, and makes a deal with the city to try it for year as long as he pays the expenses.

In addition to the cabin, scenes take place at an elementary school built in the 1950's, Mt. Bonnell, Clarksville, and the city library (the old one, not the new one), the University of Texas campus, and Manor.

It was fun revisiting the Austin of the past while writing the book, and I hope you'll enjoy reading about it. I was born in Austin and went through school there. I joined the Marines after learning I wasn't ready for college, and didn't get back to Austin for 20 plus years. It had changed so much by then I hardly knew where I was. But, it didn't matter. Everywhere I went I could see and feel the past, the place where the memories lived. Once, I told an old friend I'd meet him at the drug store. When we both got there, we noticed the corner we'd been thinking about was now a strip mall and there wasn't a drug store anywhere near there. Another fun thing is that we, my buddies and I, know routes through town that newcomers don't.

How about you? Have you experienced a change in your life or your surroundings that made you wish for the good old days? Were the good old days as good as you remember? How do you handle change? Do you embrace it or fight it? Place is not as important as who you are. You can take your beliefs and faith in God wherever you go. Likewise, you can't move to another place to get away from problems. They go with you, too.

In Where Love Once Lived, Brian never recaptures his youth, of course, because that's impossible. But he does learn that what he was searching for was the love of God.

Racism is Alive and Well, Unfortunately

Shouts of racism are in the news every day now even though you'd think we'd be way past that here in 2010. The old saying, what would Jesus do, comes to mind.

In my book, Where Love Once Lived, the male protagonist is white and his best friend is black. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did make the story more interesting. I'm sure it has a lot to do with my personal beliefs. However, how does a writer who believes in equality, write about people of different races without sounding like he or she is emphasizing the differences? Ideally, race wouldn't be mentioned. This might work in a movie or TV show, but in the black and white of a book, how do you show the black and white of the characters?

I grew up in Austin, Texas during the segregation period, and use the father of one of the characters in the book to tell about some of my experiences of that time. I turned one story upside down, letting a black character tell about his experiences. As George McCullough, now in his seventies, describes his experience back in the 1930-40's with segregation, I'm the white boy he refers to. Well, as far as fiction allows.

"It's called historical, now," Mr. McCullough said holding a fork in the air. "It use' to be a ghetto, you know." He glanced at Brian. "I don't guess Cindy told you that. Most of the Negroes lived east of Austin, but there was a colony here in Clarksville."

Mr. McCullough continued. "When I was growin' up, there were boundaries, you see. We couldn't jus' live anywhere we wanted. Ever'one knew where the lines were. Our street here was as far south as we could live."

He shook his head. "Today, it doesn't matter. No one's shocked when black and white marry, even." He locked eyes with Brian, then moved his gaze to Cindy.

"When was this neighborhood a ghetto, Grandpa?" Cindy asked. "I've heard the story, but I think Brian would like to hear about it, too."

"Let's see." He touched a thumb to his fingers. "I'd say up until sometime in the 1950s." He pointed south. "Over at Mathews School, on 9 ½ Street, that was white. Our lot touched up to a white family's back yard." He laughed. "I'd forgotten about that. Fact is, back in the 1930's or 40's, I use' to play with the little kid who lived there. Well, not play, really. We mos'ly jus' talked through the chicken wire. My Mama and Daddy told me not to, but I did anyway."

As the author, I also worried about making Mr. McCullough sound different. To make up for using the speech pattern, which I felt gave a better view of the character, later in the book, his intelligence is clearly shown.

How do you write about race differences without emphasizing the differences? What do you prefer as a reader?