My First Book Signing!

My very first book signing has been scheduled for Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Hastings Bookstore in Stillwater, OK. The first five copies of So Faithful a Heart, Special Edition were shelved at Hastings last Monday, and when I went back to check on Friday, two copies had already been sold! I'm hoping this will be a trend, and also hoping to get into more stores very soon!

Happy Birthday, Nancy Storace

Anna "Nancy" Storace

Mozart's original Susanna

27 October, 1765 to 24 August 1817

Agendas, distortion, and shoddy research

As the author of two passionate novels about the love between two real people in history, I'll be the first to admit that I had an agenda when I wrote them; that being to tell a great story that was as factual as I could make it and at the same time entertaining and compelling for the reader. That's why I took 10 plus years to research before I started writing, and why I made a detailed timeline of Nancy Storace's life and laid it against a timeline of Mozart's to make certain the events that I described in my novels could have taken place in the time and place in which I described them. As an historian, this was extremely important to me, for I didn't want the integrity of my work questioned, nor did I want to distort the facts to make them fit my agenda.

All of this is to say that because I am such a stickler for historical accuracy and detail, I'm troubled and even angered by writers who aren't as meticulous with their research or who have agendas that don't line up with history, so they either distort the facts or omit them altogether. I was rather ruthless and unforgiving in my criticism of Geoffrey Brace in the afterword of When Love Won't Die, for his distorted facts and blatant omissions of key events in Nancy's life (in his biography of Nancy entitled Anna Susanna), which were key evidence to the beliefs of many noted Mozart historians in the love affair that most likely existed between Mozart and Storace.

Today I was reminded again, why historical accuracy is so essential by a friend who is reading another novelized account of Mozart's life which focuses on the events surrounding the courtship and subsequent marriage of Mozart and Constanze Weber. In this particular novel is a conversation that takes place between Mozart and Constanze (who is not yet his fiance), where she questions his devotion to her, because she had been told that there were rumors going around Vienna that he was in love with the new English singer in town and that they had been seen together at parties and other musical events. Mozart vehemently denies that he's in love with Nancy Storace and tells Constanze that the only love he feels is for her, and dismisses Constanze's fears by convincing her that what she's heard is only idle gossip. I have read this novel (a few years ago), and had forgotten about that passage. This scene was obviously inserted to push the agenda that Mozart was never in love with Storace in the first place, and that his affections had always belonged to Constanze. However, what was interesting about this situation is the fact that Nancy Storace didn't even arrive in Vienna until six months after Mozart and Constanze were married, so this conversation, while it could have taken place, wouldn't have taken place until sometime in 1783 or 1784 and not in 1781, and would have arisen out of a wife's jealousy and not over a girl's questioning her suitor's devotion.

See how easily things can be distorted to meet an agenda by simply changing the timeline?

On the road to legitimacy

It's strange that even in this age of mass communication, web marketing, Ebay purchasing and selling, Ebooks & Ereaders, Amazon.com, etc., that the public still doesn't consider a book "legitimate" until it is available for purchase in a "brick & mortar" bookstore. Well, today I am happy to announce that So Faithful a Heart: Special Edition is soon to be available at Hastings in Stillwater, Oklahoma, with a local author book signing to be announced sometime after the beginning of the new year. This will be the first step towards making my book available in brick & mortar bookstores throughout the entire state of Oklahoma as well as nationwide. I'm truly excited about this new development, and will keep friends and locals posted once I get an actual date for the book signing.

It begins with the first step...

"When Love Won't Die" to be reviewed at History Undressed

Noted historical fiction romance author/reviewer Eliza Knight, at History Undressed has announced that she will review So Faithful a Heart: When Love Won't Die in the coming months. Some will recall that last year she reviewed the first novel in the So Faithful a Heart series, The Love Story of Nancy Storace & Wolfgang Mozart and left this fabulous review. I'm only too excited and honored that Ms. Knight has enthusiastically agreed to read and review the second, and look forward to it in the next few months. (She says her queue is quite long right now!) I'll keep everyone posted.

My Apologies to My First Readers

Today I happened to go to the Amazon.com page for the print version of my new book, So Faithful a Heart: When Love Won't Die, Special Edition and found that they had dropped the price from $23.50 to $16.92 and was quite upset over it. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered me, but (a) I wasn't notified that they were going to do this, (b) the book has been out for less than a month and I've barely had a chance to market it, (c) my first readers, who paid the regular list price, will go to my page to leave reviews only to find that they paid nearly $10.00 more and (d) in dropping the price so low within the first month of its release it looks bad on me and on my book and indicates that Amazon doesn't have much faith in its success (although how an independent author is supposed to have roaring success within the first month of their book's release is beyond me).

My apologies to my first readers who paid a much higher price for their books. I assure you, this was not my doing. I set the price at $23.50 with the thought that this was reasonable for a 530 page, 180,000 word novel that was written, edited, and published with such high quality as this one has been. I could see Amazon lowering the price after six months or so, if the book wasn't selling well, but not within two weeks of the marketing page's debut. That's simply ridiculous. Believe me, Amazon HAS heard from me on this.