IWSG: The First Ever Bookless Book Launch

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My second book, just released, had gremlins. I'm not sure what brought them on (too many midnight snacks? an ego check from the universe?), but as soon as the book left me and went into production, they attacked. The merciless little critters kept trying to bring down the airplane of my book production, and I kept checking the seats around me to make sure William Shatner hadn't shown up. 

• First, there was confusion about the launch date
• Then, delays in editing
• Then, more delays in editing
• Then delays in art
• Then, more delays in art correction

It felt like every time the ball came back into my court, I had to turn the work around at light speed to try and get the process back on time track. I was stubborn about that release date. I had plans for a release party, and, besides, I really loved getting my first book published for my birthday last year and wanted to give myself that present again if I could. 

But we made it! Thanks for some fantastic work from the wonderfully supportive marketing team, we pulled it out in the final lap and the book launched as scheduled . . . as an e-book. The paper was delayed yet again due to problems with getting it into Ingram. 

Me, clutching the one paper copy I was able to get by party time. But check out that banner!

Which led to: The First-Ever Bookless Book Launch Party! I had a party scheduled, sponsored by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library. My parents were coming into town for it. My mother-in-law made cookies. My husband created bookmarks. My daughter learned how to use my phone sales gadget. My banners and signs were printed. But . . . there were no paper books :-(  

Those delays getting the book into Ingram meant that there was no way to get a box of them here in time, despite the best efforts of the publisher and the bookseller I was working with.

When I found out, I just about cried. Okay, I admit it, I cried. I moped for an entire evening. 

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But by the next morning, I shook it off. I guess I'm a make-lemonade sort of gal. 

The point of a book launch party is to celebrate the launch of the book. The people who took time out of their busy lives to come and hear me read and talk about the novel will still buy copies if they were going to. In the meantime, there were pages to share, and cookies to eat. 

How do you celebrate your milestones as a writer? How do you handle it when your best laid plans take a left turn at Albuquerque? 

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This posting is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop. To check out other posts by writers in a variety of places in their careers, check out the participant list. This group is one of the most open and supportive groups of people I have ever been associated with. If you write, you should check them out!


If you want to check out my superhero stories, click the covers below. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out two weeks ago!

A to Z Wrap-Up and Reflections

And now I know my ABCs. Next time won't you sing with me?

I'm a compulsive listmaker. In fact, as a student, when I would get bored in class, I would just write down the alphabet, give myself a theme and list words: boy's names, songs I like, places in the world, foods, etc. So now wonder the #AtoZChallenge appeals to me so much.  It's like they designed it for me!

Besides having fun writing my posts, I also had a great time reading posts. I revisited old friends who participated with me in past years and found a few new ones. Just like last year, I didn't read as much as I wanted to. April is always very busy in la casa Bryant: my daughter's birthday, my birthday, and, this year: a book launch!  So, not as much reading time as I would like (honestly, there never is). 

In case you missed any of my posts along the way, or just want to see what I wrote about, here's my abecedarium of Superheroes.

A is for Antman

B is for Buffy

C is for Cyborg

D is for Daredevil

E is for Elastigirl

F is for Flash Gordon

G is for Gamora

H is for Hawkgirl

I is for Ironman

J is for James Bond

K is for Kid Flash

L is for Leonardo

M is for Ms. Marvel

N is for Nick Fury

O is for Obi-Wan Kenobi

P is for Phantom

Q is for Quicksilver

R is for Red Sonja

S is for Swamp Thing

T is for The Tick

U is for Underdog

V is for Velma

W is for Wolverine

X is for Professor X

Y is for Gertrude Yorkes

Z is for Zorro

Among my favorites for reading this year were: Tasha's Thinkings: Fictional Phantoms, The Faux Fountain Pen: The Revision Project, Laws of Gravity, My Pet Blog: Soundtrack Songs, dSavannahRambles: dSavannahDefects, Story Dam: Writing Tips, Kathleen Valentine: Meet My Imaginary Friends, Discarded Darlings: Short Stories drawn from audience suggested words.

There were lots of others I enjoyed a post or two from but didn't make it back to see the whole alphabet from, but that's what May is for, right? April showers (of blog posts) make May flowers (of discovery).
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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out a few days ago!

Z is for … Zorro

Zorro, or Don Diego de la Vega, has been around for a while. The Mexican Robin Hood was created in 1919 by Johnston McCulley and has been swashbuckling around books, comics, stage and screen (both large and small) every since. He's a man of many faces, and though he's a Mexican hero, he's seldom been played by a Hispanic person (at least in English language renditions). 

Usually, he's a rich nobleman in Spanish-ruled California, fighting for the rights of the common man against the landowners and less noble noblemen. He wears a mask, which leaves room for the role to be passed on to other men (as happened in the more recent movie version with Antonio Banderas inheriting the role from Anthony Hopkins). 

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I first knew Zorro from his old movie persona with Douglas Fairbanks and the 1950s Disney program with Guy Williams, programs I watched in re-runs with my parents. Both of these went with the silly secret identity. I liked this idea that everyone thought de la Vega a useless fop or fool, but really he had the heart of a hero! No one suspects him of the acts of heroism his alter ego accomplishes. 

There are resonances with a lot of other heroes with secret identities and deep pockets, from the Phantom to Batman, Oliver Queen to the Scarlet Pimpernel. It's an idea that still resonates for me today: the advantage you can gain from having your enemies underestimate you. And it takes a special kind of brass to let your public identity be the one everyone thinks little of, so you can accomplish your mighty deeds in secret. Zorro is a tricky fox indeed. 

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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out a few days ago!

Y is for …Gertrude Yorkes

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If you're a comics fan and you've not yet read Runaways, you definitely should. It's a series about a group of teenagers who learn that their parents are supervillains and band together to break out on their own.

Gertrude Yorkes is my favorite of the main characters. She's sarcastic and cynical, as well as smart and capable. Gert's parents are time-travelers. Gert is telepathically bonded to a dinosaur. When they make their escape she takes on the name Arsenic and calls her dinosaur Old Lace, after the classic comedy. Got to love a teenaged character who knows that play/movie and loves it enough to reference in her superhero name!

I tend to like characters with gruff exteriors and hidden deep compassion and love. Gert fits this category. She's skeptical to the point that it causes tension with the rest of her team, but she would fight for any of them, and often does. She spends a lot of time caring for the youngest runaway, a superstrong girl name Molly.

I can't say too much more about Ms. Yorkes without spoiling her character arc for other readers, but she is really something different among comic book heroines. She's not interested in being anybody's eye candy or taking stupid risks. She believes in justice, and not just for herself. She's quite a young woman!
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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out a few days ago!

X is for …Professor X

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Professor X or Charles Xavier is the leader of the X Men, the founder of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. I love him best when played by Patrick Stewart (though James McAvoy is awesome, too), but he's an intriguing character every place I've encountered him.

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He's a visionary, with all the moral ambiguity and arrogance that includes. He wants to do the right thing, but has a power that can easily be used to manipulate others. The X Men universe makes great use of that moral struggle in the friendship between Charles and Max (aka Magneto). Magneto sees the inherent bad in people and wants to protect against it; Charles sees the inherent good and wants to trust to it. They're both wrong and right, and are proven so by circumstances, which makes for some good dramatic tensions.

Like Nick Fury, Charles Xavier isn't always perfectly forthcoming about his plans, and what he wears close to his chest might be dangerous to others, despite the best of intentions. He's a great character for ensemble stories like the X Men, because he can be the lynchpin that holds the group together, or the point where loyalties divide. 

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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out a few days ago!

W is for…Wolverine

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Wolverine has been known by several names, and had several looks depending on who is drawing him. I tend to think of him as Logan, and I always picture him in a bloody teeshirt and jeans (no yellow pajamas for me, please).

When I first discovered the character, in comics, Hugh Jackman wasn't yet associated with him, and he was allowed to be kind of squat and ugly. He's definitely been prettied up now, though I'll give Jackman credit for understanding the character psychologically and mastering some of the iconic poses.

Logan is probably my favorite superhero character, besides those I myself have written. He's an antihero, in that he's not always interested in being a hero and he's willing to use deadly force. I like him because he's got such a relentlessly tough and grumpy exterior, but he's got a marshmallow of a heart when it comes to people who need protecting.

He has an especial soft spot for young women and in many of his storylines has had a young protégé: Kitty Pride, Jubilee, Rogue, X-23, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan). I've admired the relationships for avoiding sexual complications (and the ick factor of teenager with an old dude) and for the way he manages to protect these women while still helping them fight for themselves. He's egalitarian in his own way, and old fashioned and modern at the same time, teaching that the best defense is a strong offense.

He's an amazing character, with a healing factor (at least in most storylines) that slows his aging and gives writers a long history to play around in. He's been a soldier, a mercenary, a recluse, and a hero. I'll keep reading him as long as they keep writing him.
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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out a few days ago!

V is for . . . Velma!

Velma Dinkley might not seem like a superhero to some. She can't breath underwater or fly or throw fire or anything like that. But not all superheroes have superpowers. Without their gear, Ironman and Batman are just rich guys, after all.

Velma is a superhero to me because she's a woman making it on the strength of her intellect. She always has the necessary background knowledge to spot the clue that is out of place. She's brave and stalwart, willing to walk into the heart of the volcano or into the depths of the swamp.

She even has a weakness: blindness (in the form of a tendency to lose her glasses).

I've loved Velma since I was a child watching the original Scooby Doo,  Where are You? series, and I've enjoyed the interpretations since in other cartoons and the movies. Especially in more recent programming, both Velma and Daphne get a rewrite and are no longer just comic relief and victim, respectively.

Velma is so hipster that she was cool with her own geek-ness before the world began to realize that smart is sexy. I still wouldn't mind growing up to be Velma.
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This post is part of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. I'll be writing about superheroes I love all month. You can check out other bloggers and see their creative takes on the challenge here.

Don't forget to check out my own superhero stories. Change of Life, book two of my Menopausal Superheroes series just came out a few days ago!