Something Special for Moms–Blog Hop, PLUS Living by Ear Paperback Giveaway

Posted on by Mary Rowen

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May is a time to celebrate mothers. Whether you’re a mom yourself or you’re looking for a gift for a mom in your life, here’s something fun to try. It’s called the Something Special for Mom Giveaway Event, and it’s an opportunity to win really cool prizes, thanks to the Blogging Mamas Network! The contest runs from May 10th until May 26th.

How does it work? Well, if you check out the various participating bloggers in the linky below, you’ll see that every single one of them has great prizes to share with you! Make sure you also enter the Grand Prize – a $250 Gift Card to Mía Mariú! One lucky person will be psyched to win all this eco-friendly makeup!

As a participant in this contest, I’m raffling off two signed copies of Living by Ear to one winner. I’ll gladly ship those signed books to any one or two addresses in the continental USA. (The total value of this prize is $32.) All you need to do to enter is leave a comment below about mothers or Mother’s Day. Then, I’ll put the name of everyone who leaves a comment in a hat and pick one. The winner will be notified shortly after May 26th.

I should also mention that the Kindle version of Living by Ear –which makes a great Mother’s Day gift–is on promo for $.99 on Amazon until midnight on Mother’s Day (EST). After that, it will return to its regular price of $4.99.

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According to Jenny, So Easy Being Green, the Blogging Mamas Network, and the Something Special for Mom participating bloggers are not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prize obligations.

Mia Mariu Giveaway

Finishing the Novel: Does the Author Need to Tie Up Every Loose End?

Posted on by Mary Rowen

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This is a question I’ve been pondering lately, as I prepare to publish a second novel and work on the plot for a third.

First of all, let me say that I believe my second novel, called Grunge, has a pretty tidy ending. Anyone who reads it—and I hope you do—probably won’t have too many questions about what happens to most of the characters.

But I’ve been a bit perplexed by a couple of reviews of Living by Ear on Amazon that complain about the ending being too ambiguous. Of course, I welcome and actively encourage all reviews and criticism—please keep them coming!—but I’m surprised to find that some people consider the story unfinished. And recently, two friends have asked if I’m working on a sequel.

Now I realize that some authors have had tremendous success with sequels and book series, but I can’t even begin to imagine what a sequel to Living by Ear would be like. As far as I’m concerned, the various conflicts faced by at least four of the five main characters get resolved in one way or another; therefore the story is over. Then again, there are a few people and situations that aren’t neatly wrapped up. Certainly, I could have added a few more lines—or chapters—and resolved those elements on the page, but I thought it’d be more interesting and realistic to leave the reader guessing a bit.

But is it fair for a writer to do that? Obviously, the reader has a right to expect the major conflicts in a novel to get worked out, and for the ending to be satisfying. It doesn’t have to be happy, but it must make sense in the context of the story, and it must be believable. If you write a book—like Living by Ear—about a woman who’s trying to balance family, creativity, and her love life, you’ve got to show her struggles with those things and how she sorts them all out. But what about the other members of her family? And the minor characters? Do all of their issues need to be resolved as well?

On one hand, I understand how it’s frustrating when that doesn’t happen. Readers invest themselves in books; they make a deal with the writer that they’ll take a journey with them, but they want that journey to pay off. On the other hand, nobody’s life is ever completely buttoned up, and writing a story that ends with no loose ends—in my opinion—causes it to lose some credibility.

I’d love to hear other opinions on this topic. Please feel free to leave comments. I apologize for having comment moderation turned on right now, but this blog has been hit with a crazy amount of spam recently.

Thanks so much. As a closing note, I’ll also add that the Kindle version of Living by Ear is on a Mother’s Day promo, and is selling on Amazon for $.99 until May 12th, 2013. And if you’re interested in winning a signed paperback copy, please add your name to the Goodreads Giveaway listed here.

Thanks again!

Mary

LIVING BY EAR Mother’s Day $.99 Promo

Posted on by Mary Rowen

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Dear Friends,

Moving forward from the tragedies in Boston this past week–and in honor of Mother’s Day–I will be offering the Kindle Version of LIVING BY EAR on Amazon for just $.99 from now until May 12, 2013.

It might not shock you to hear that my own mother really enjoys the story, but I’ll also mention that she has sold over 50 copies of the book to friends in her hometown, and they have invited me to speak at their Senior Center in a couple of weeks. So if you’re looking for a nice, inexpensive gift for your mom, sister, aunt, daughter, or friend, please consider LIVING BY EAR.

Once again, the Kindle edition will be available for $.99 until Mother’s Day, and Amazon makes it really easy to give Kindle books as gifts. All you have to do is click on “Give as a Gift” and enter the recipient’s email address. And, if the recipient doesn’t have a Kindle device, they can download a free reader for almost any type of computer.

I can’t guarantee they’ll love the story–although I hope they do!–but I can promise that LIVING BY EAR showcases a much more peaceful Boston than we’ve seen recently.

Love, Peace, and Happy Mother’s Day!
Mary

Some Recent Amazon Reviews of LIVING BY EAR

Posted on by Mary Rowen

If you need a break from the all the sad news coverage about Boston, perhaps you’d be interested in reading some of the reviews of LIVING BY EAR that people have posted on Amazon. Some are very positive–and some not so much–but I appreciate them all. Thanks to all who have taken the time to write them!

Here’s the link…enjoy!

Oh, and one more thing, if you have a moment, would you consider going over to the new LIVING BY EAR Facebook page and “liking” it? (But only if you actually like it, of course!)

Thanks so much!

–Mary

Rotten Trees and Healing

Posted on by Mary Rowen

Driving back from NYC to Boston yesterday, I kept thinking about trees, rotted on the inside. Maybe it was because there were so many of them, chopped down and lying alongside the Merritt Parkway. There they were, lifeless, still, and harmless. People had noticed that they were diseased, and authorities had taken them down before they could fall on humans or cars.

Last year, my mother decided to remove the tree in her front yard for similar reasons. It was sad for her—and for the rest of my family—because we associated so many good memories with that tree. We’d climbed it as children, picnicked under it in the summertime, swung from its branches. And yet, the tree was rotten inside, and there was a real possibility that it might fall in a storm and land on my mom’s house or the house of one of her neighbors. So down it came.

Sadly, nobody noticed the rot inside the mind of the person who bombed the Boston Marathon on Monday. Or if they did, they didn’t tell anyone. And so, the worst happened. Three people dead and over a hundred and seventy maimed and injured. An unthinkable end to the 117th running of a magnificent and historic race.

How many times have my husband and kids cheered me on at the finish line of races I’ve run? I’m no marathoner, but almost every time I’ve done a 5K, a 10K, or a half-marathon, I’ve looked forward to seeing their sweet faces at the finish line, cheering me on. It’s unimaginable to me that a parent could finish a race to find one of their children dead, another missing a limb, and their spouse critically wounded. And that’s only one runner. What about the thousands of others who were still out there running—perhaps making their way over Heartbreak Hill—when they were told the race had been stopped because of bombs? What thoughts went through their minds? Only they know.

But why? Why did it have to happen at all? My mind keeps drifting back to those rotten trees. Nobody blames the trees for becoming diseased, and we shouldn’t blame people whose minds have become diseased either. But we need to care for them. And watch out for them. If we hear them saying odd things, making threats, or behaving abnormally, we need to get them help before they do damage. Because like a tree that’s become rotten at its core, they can do serious harm.

And here’s where the analogy gets shaky. Because once a diseased tree falls on a house or worse, it’s fallen. It’s done its damage. But the Marathon bomber is still out there, still diseased. Meanwhile, his victims are suffering unfathomable grief. They’ve lost children, lost limbs or perhaps just lost faith in humanity. And those people—more than anyone else—need closure so they can begin to heal.

So please, to echo the plea of the lead FBI investigator on the case Richard DesLauriers, if you know anything, or have heard anything suspicious, please report it. This diseased tree has the potential to do more damage. But there’s also the possibility that, over time, it can be helped.

You Too Can Work in Hollywood (Without Traveling Far From Home)

Posted on by Mary Rowen

As a writer, I can’t help dreaming about someday seeing one of my novels on the big screen. Therefore, when I heard that a Hollywood movie being filmed in a nearby city was looking for extras, I couldn’t resist sending in my name and a headshot. It sounded glamorous and fun, and of course there was the chance that I’d meet some bigwig who’d want to turn my book into a film.

Then I got the casting call! My family was in the process of adopting a dog (a blog post for another day) when my cell phone rang. The woman on the other end wanted to know if I could be at a fitting the next day, then be on set for two days the following week. The timing wasn’t great—to say the least—but my amazing husband told me to go for it. He said he’d work from home on the days I’d be busy, and would take care of the kids and the dog.

So what happened? Well, I can’t disclose any details AT ALL about the film, or the location, or any celebrities I might’ve seen and/or interacted with. One of the first things I did as an extra was sign a nondisclosure agreement, promising I wouldn’t share any information about the project with the press or online world. But as interesting as the project was—and this was a good one to be sure—I was even more fascinated by the other extras, and the nature of the job.

Job? you might ask. Oh come on. How hard can it be? Well, let me just say that I consider myself an active person. I jog a couple of miles every day; I keep the house clean; I do the laundry; I walk the (new and somewhat wild) dog; I handle most of the food shopping and all the cooking in our house; I run errands; I transport the kids to their various weekend and after-school activities. Oh, and I try to write books too. But after two twelve-hour days on the film set—in three-inch spike heels, no less—I could barely even move, let alone think. I have no idea how other parents manage to do this kind of work, but plenty of my coworkers were parents.

I also developed a tremendous new respect for actors, and I’m not just talking about the famous ones we read about in People. Because in addition to the job being extremely physical and demanding on the body, I can’t imagine what it must do to your head after a while. Mainly because everything about movies has to do with image, and image—by nature—isn’t real. There are seemingly endless touchups to hair and makeup, hundreds of wardrobe adjustments, thousands of attempts to make everything look and sound perfect. And then, after the final cut—usually somewhere around midnight—you walk out the door, get into your car, and drive home to your real family and real problems.

It definitely altered my perspective for a few days. In some ways, being an extra in a movie is like taking a brief vacation from actual life. For this particular movie, everyone waited in line for over an hour each day to have their hair and makeup done, which resulted in dozens of conversations with complete strangers—some of whom became new friends—about our lives, dreams, and families. And I think working as an extra encourages an openness rarely found in most other fields. I can honestly say I learned more about some of my movie coworkers than I know about many people I see and talk to on a regular basis.

Would I do it again? Hmm. Certainly not for a long time. Being entirely absent from my family for two twelve-hour days—no cell phones were allowed on set, and cell reception in the holding area was spotty at best—felt really stressful to me, and the pay’s not great (non-union workers get paid minimum wage or something close to that). On the other hand, I’m extremely grateful for the experience, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a new adventure. Sure, you could fly off to some island or hike the Appalachian Trail, but those things require much more serious investments of time and money. All you have to do to be a movie extra is find a casting company in your local area and send them a photo and some basic information about yourself. Then wait for that call. Oh, and there’s always the chance that a director will see you and ask you to audition for a speaking part. Or that you’ll meet some bigwig who wants to turn your book into a movie…

Note: if you are such a bigwig, or if you’re a reader who likes women’s fiction, please check out my book, LIVING BY EAR, on Amazon. And feel free to let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your feedback!