Book News!

I have great book news to share with you!

After a difficult, scary, and confusing month of worrying myself into a near panic over my first publisher, Booktrope Editions, closing the doors on May 31, 2016, I am thrilled to announce that my historical novel, ‘A Decent Woman’ found a new home with Sixth Street River Press, LLC.The book will be republished under the imprint, Scarlet River Press, headed by Ally Bishop, editor of ‘A Decent Woman’ and the fabulous host at ‘Upgrade Your Story’ podcast. I am grateful to Ally and her fabulous publishing team, and relieved beyond belief.

‘A Decent Woman’ is now AVAILABLE in ebook format on Amazon, republished by Sixth Street River Press, with the paperback version soon to follow! And we might have a new book cover design, still featuring the Our Lady of Montserrat. Lots to look forward to!

A special thank you to my loving kids, family, friends, FB and Instagram friends, and blogger friends, who offered great information, love, and support, while pushing and encouraging me to keep writing despite an uncertain publishing future.

Now I can finish my second book, ‘The Laments of Sister Maria Inmaculada’, knowing my first ‘child’ has an awesome, new home and a brighter future. Lots of lessons learned this month…

and Mercury is out of retrograde! Hallelujah. Be well and happy writing to you!

More to come…

ABOUT ELEANOR

Award winning, Puerto Rican-born novelist, Eleanor Parker Sapia, was raised in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe. Eleanor’s career paths as an artist, counselor, alternative health practitioner, Spanish language family support worker and refugee case worker, continue to inspire her stories.

Eleanor’s debut novel, ‘A Decent Woman‘, set in turn of the nineteenth century Puerto Rico, is published by Sixth Street River Press. The book is a finalist for Best Historical Fiction, English, in the 2016 International Latino Book Awards with Latino Literacy Now, and was selected as Book of the Month by Las Comadres and Friends National Latino Book Club. Eleanor is featured in the award winning anthology, ‘Latina Authors and Their Muses’, edited by Mayra Calvani. Eleanor is a proud member of Las Comadres Para Las Americas, PEN America, The National Association of Professional Women, and the Historical Novel Society. She is a contributing writer at Organic Coffee, Haphazardly Literary Society. When not writing, Eleanor loves facilitating creativity groups, reading, gardening, and tells herself she is making plans to walk El Camino de Santiago de Compostela a second time. She adores her two adult children and currently lives in West Virginia, where she is writing her second novel, ‘The Laments of Sister Maria Inmaculada’ and the sequel to ‘A Decent Woman’ called ‘Mistress of Coffee’.

http://amzn.to/1X0qFvK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The R’s of Life by Sally Cronin – Chapter Two – Respect

Wonderful post on respect by Sally Cronin.

In Survival Mode

MAY 2, 2016 BY ELEANORPARKERSAPIA

As of last Thursday, I had a published novel (February 2015) and two manuscripts in the works. My first book, ‘A Decent Woman’ was doing well, still on several Amazon best seller lists, and I’d hoped to offer the completed manuscript of ‘The Lament of Sister Maria Inmaculada’ to my new editor at Booktrope in a few months time. The sequel to ‘A Decent Woman’, called ‘Mistress of Coffee’, was to be published next. My kids were well, my best friend was visiting me from North Carolina, and life was good. By late Friday evening, my life was turned upside down. I was in a real panic, sick with worry, and heartbroken after reading the opening statement of an email I’d received from Booktrope:

“We are deeply saddened to share the news that Booktrope will be ceasing business …”

I am deeply saddened for all my fellow Booktrope authors and our supportive author community which includes editors, proofreaders, cover designers, and book managers, many whom are authors, who must now find jobs and are scrambling to find homes for their wonderful books. As am I.

You best believe I had a mini pity party Saturday and Sunday, while keeping in mind that Booktrope took a chance on me in 2014, and that I have one month before my book and ebook are removed from Amazon, except for third party vendors. I don’t have a lot of time. I have a lot to learn. I’m rewriting my query letters and researching publishers and agents.

My mind, body and soul are in recovery and regroup: survival mode.

Once again, I find myself facing a new mountain after hoping I’d found a home for two more books. God knows, I’m no stranger to mountains, but this learning curve is steep and the timing sucks. But maybe not. I’ve grown and learned important life lessons over the past years; maybe I’m due another life lesson. But anxiety is in place as I research other publishers and look into self-publishing. We shall see. I am not giving up. I will see my book republished and will publish more books in the future.

My deepest thanks to my fellow authors, writers, readers, friends, and family who have bought my book, read and reviewed, and shared with me during my writing/publishing journey. I am very grateful for your love, support, and encouragement. I am blessed to know you.

Best of luck to all my fellow Booktrope authors around the world. Any information about self-publishing and small press publishers will be greatly appreciated!

If you are interested in buying ‘A Decent Woman’ on Amazon, please do so before May 31, 2016. On June 1st, it will not be available, unless I decide to self-publish in May. I may wait to republish at a later date.

I don’t know what will happen after June, but of one thing I am certain–my writing career isn’t over by a long shot. I will keep you posted on my journey.

Thank you for reading!

ABOUT ELEANOR

Puerto Rican-born novelist, Eleanor Parker Sapia, was raised in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe. Eleanor’s careers as an artist, counselor, alternative health practitioner, Spanish language family support worker and refugee case worker, continue to inspire her stories.

Eleanor’s debut novel, ‘A Decent Woman‘, set in turn of the nineteenth century Puerto Rico, was selected as 2015 July Book of the Month for Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club. Eleanor is featured in the anthology, ‘Latina Authors and Their Muses’, edited by Mayra Calvani, and in the soon-to-be released anthology, Organic Coffee, Haphazardly Literary Society, edited by Allie Burke. Eleanor is a proud member of Las Comadres Para Las Americas, PEN America, The National Association of Professional Women, and the Historical Novel Society. She is a contributing writer at Organic Coffee, Haphazardly Literary Society. When not writing, Eleanor loves facilitating creativity groups, reads, and tells herself she is making plans to walk El Camino de Santiago de Compostela a second time.

Eleanor adores her two adult children and currently lives in West Virginia, where she is happily writing her second novel, ‘The Lament of Sister Maria Inmaculada’.

http://www.amazon.com/Decent-Woman-Eleanor-Parker-Sapia-ebook/dp/B00TUP47W

 

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

Reblogged from Organic Coffee, Haphazardly

https://haphazardcoffee.com/2016/04/28/whats-going-on-here/

APRIL 28, 2016 MONICAMARIEVINCENT

by Eleanor Parker Sapia

Over the weekend, you watched the umpteenth YouTube video under the guise of researching for your work in progress. Congratulations, you now know more than anyone about the history of toilets, the sketchy death of Marilyn Monroe, and about the bedroom activities of the British monarchs.

In a 36-hour period, you managed to walk by your writing desk and not actually look at it, or the contents on top, namely your laptop, the lamp, assorted pencils and pens, notebooks full of research material and important research links. Twice you’ve straightened the stack of books at the left-hand corner of your writing desk, which includes how-to writing books, a dictionary, and a thesaurus. Hell, you even bought ‘The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression’, and made a special trip to the dollar store for new highlighters and more notebooks in snazzy colors and designs. You can never have enough highlighters and notebooks. I know this. Everything is perfect and lined up, yet you aren’t writing.

Your calendar is clear, the house is cleaner than its’ been in months, and the laundry is caught up. You’ve said ‘no’ to invitations for lunch, drinks, and catching up with friends over the weekend, and you alerted family and neighbors that you’re writing. The ‘Please do not disturb’ sign is taped to your front door. The conditions for writing couldn’t be more ideal, there’s no time like the present and all that jazz, yet it is now late Sunday evening and you haven’t written a word all weekend. Why?

This type of dry spell is especially troublesome when our homes and relationships are in turmoil, when bills and taxes are due, or when we can’t see a way forward. It doesn’t matter what’s happening: we can’t write, but we wish like hell we could to alleviate the guilt.

Yes, this has happened to me, more than once, and probably to most writers; it happens to the best of writers. But what’s going on? Is it a case of writer’s block? Does writer’s block really exist?

I personally believe writer’s block is a real thing, but I call it my ‘dry spell’, as the word ‘block’ denotes a complete and utter blockage that I might need several sticks of dynamite to get through. I can get through a dry spell.

When a dry spell manifests in my writing life, it often comes at the heel of one thing: FEAR. Most writers have experienced the paralyzing fear of failure, fear of rejection and ridicule, and the fear of the unknown, which can lead to self-doubt, low self-esteem, and confidence at the time of the dry spell—a real vicious cycle.

Here are few ways to combat the writing dry spell, while keeping your story at the back of your mind:

• Do something else for twenty minutes.
• Take a walk or short drive.
• Thumb through a magazine, searching for the perfect book cover idea, story idea, or new character.
• Write a blog post or article on a completely different topic.
• Go to a coffee shop or diner to journal about what the heck is going in your life and interior life.
• Call a trusted fellow writer or good friend that you can commiserate with on the dreaded dry spell.
• Read a good book by one of your writing heroes and heroines.
• Read a bad book and write down ways you’d improve that book.

Don’t give in to the dry spell for too long. Take a break if you need it, but come back to it. Slow and steady will win that race. Try these suggestions:

• Consider that you might need an outline rather than writing by the seat of your pants;
• Rewrite your outline; flesh it out;
• Write a short biography of each character in order to get to know them better;
• Write three synopses: the elevator ‘one-liner’, the short synopsis, and the 4-5 synopsis (this worked for me not too long ago);
• Avoid negative people (always!) until you feel stronger;
• Keep writing.

Good luck!

Puerto Rican-born novelist Eleanor Parker Sapia was raised in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe. Eleanor’s life experiences as a counselor, an alternative health practitioner, a Spanish language social worker, and a refugee case worker inspire her passion for writing. When Eleanor is not writing, she facilitates creativity groups and tells herself she is making plans to walk El Camino de Santiago a second time.

A Decent Woman, Eleanor’s bestselling historical novel, is described as “…a true work of historical depth and artistry.” Eleanor has two adventurous, grown children and currently lives in wild and wonderful West Virginia.

http://www.amazon.com/Decent-Woman-Eleanor-Parker-Sapia-ebook/dp/B00TUP47WI/