The Plunge...and a Taste of Violet Shadows

You know that first swim of the year?  You go to the lake, or the river.  The sun is out, and the water looks so inviting, so you step in.  Then you realize how cold the water is, and you stand there in the shallows for a few minutes while your feet get numb and you try to decide what to do next.  Do you stay in the shallows, half wet and half dry, half cold and half warm, or do you take the plunge all at one go, get the shock over with so that then you can enjoy yourself?


My life lately has been rather similar to this, or seemed so.  So many things have been going on, opportunities presenting themselves all at once...my choices seem to be to say yes to everything, to take the plunge, or to pick and choose, remain safe and sane...but also less fulfilled.


...so I'm taking the plunge.


First of all, Violet Shadows has hit its stride in production.  The final edits are in, and the whole process is moving along at an alarming (yet delightful) speed.  The proof is ordered, and I should have it in hand next week.


I have the opportunity to release Ashford as an audiobook, an option I hadn't even really considered until recently.  It's in production now, and should be available in early August through Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.  I'm very excited about this, and very grateful to Miss Amy Burzak, who will be doing the narration.


This Thursday we're performing again, centerstage in the Chewelah Park for Chataqua, Chewelah's big annual festival.


This Friday is my ten-year celebratory head-shaving party.  Huzzah!  Had to wait until after Thursday, as performing classical ballet with a shaved head covered in henna tattoos might not look quite right.


My sister and I may be going to Hawaii in early August for a cousin's wedding.  Still working out the details.


Meanwhile, my brain is going mad with ideas for the next novel.


So...all things taken together, I'm floating.  The water is cold, and a little scary, and I may be covered in goosebumps, but I'm floating, not sinking, and things are coming together.


I'll leave you with a preview of Violet Shadows.  Thank you to the wonderful Katherine Owen for the splendid early review!


Melanie Rose delivers, once again, with her new novella, Violet Shadows. Picking up from the story-line of her debut novel Ashford, the author focuses upon Violet Creeley, who has left behind her life in beloved England because of the unexpected violent death of her brother Tristan. In Violet Shadows, Violet has taken on a new identity as "Marie Severin" and joined the French Resistance. As is characteristic of Rose's writing, the author focuses upon the little nuances within her story-line that make it both refreshing and distinctive. Readers are soon pulled into Marie's new world, which is inundated with distrust and great fear, during the turbulent times of World War II, in her newly adopted country of France. With her usual literary flare for finding poignancy within ordinary characters that become extraordinary and extends beyond the page, readers will admire Marie's courage as she bravely serves the French Resistance and lives with the constant danger. Nothing is quite what it seems, and soon, Marie must make a choice between the cause and the individual. 

What makes Melanie Rose's literary work a standout is the way she portrays and develops her characters, illustrates their humanity in distinguishable and unexpected ways, and writes prose as if playing classical music. What a delightful read! The story-line is captivating as well as poignant with just the right amount of twists and turns that will hold a reader's interest. If you enjoy historical fiction that is full of promise and redemption and love a story-line where characters must discover for themselves what it means to choose and love someone beyond the cause and the war, you'll love Violet Shadows.

-Katherine Owen, Author of Seeing Julia, Not To Us, and When I See You

Publishing and Other Odds and Ends

Okay...do I remember how to blog?  It really has been a while, but September has been a very busy month.  I know, excuses, excuses.  But in all honesty, since the last time I posted plenty of things have happened: my sister broke her ankle, I went to Portland to visit her, my husband got a new job, and I wriggled my way through the preliminary steps of publishing Ashford, among other things.


Yes, I'm self-publishing.  A controversial move, but much less so than in the past.  At this point it can't do me any harm, and might do me some good.  The manuscript had been edited and re-edited multiple times, by others and myself, and was starting to build a little fan base.  It's time for it to exist in another form, and it's time for me to learn how to market it.


From the back cover:

Seventeen year old Anna is a naive American orphan, delighted to find herself on a tour of Europe in the spring of 1939.  A feeling of camaraderie with all mankind thrills her as she mingles with throngs of foreigners, but her joy is short-lived.  WWII shatters the world.  As fathers and sons, husbands and brothers dive grimly into the trenches, Anna is left stranded in England, disillusioned and afraid.  However, this worldwide catastrophe may be the perfect catalyst to mature Anna into the brave young woman she longs to be.  Even as the world is shadowed with disaster, Anna finds friends in the kindly Bertram family.  In the midst of all that threatens to tear her world apart, will she find a place to truly belong?

My thanks to Megan Andrews for the back cover description.

The golf season is winding down, and I have to say (surprise!) that I'm ready for it to be over.  It's been a good experience over all, but it's not my world.  People look at me when I speak, and it's like they don't understand the language.  In all fairness, I probably look the same when they start talking about golf.  That world and mine are like oil and vinegar (to borrow a phrase from Anthony Trollope).  Not to say that mine is better or theirs worse.  They just don't fit.

Bits and Pieces

So I spent the larger part of the last two (beautiful and sunny) days taking an online course to get my alcohol server's permit for my job at the golf course this summer.  Finishing the last module this morning, and of course now it's rather overcast and threatening rain.  However, it's not actually raining yet, so I might have to go for a walk when I'm finished anyway.  More on the golf course once work actually begins.


Said goodbye to my sister yesterday, as she's leaving for Flight Attendant Training in Salt Lake City.  I'm happy for her, but it's sad to see her go.  It's been great having her close by the last two years.  We really haven't spent so much time together since she was in college. Still, fun to see her off on another adventure.


I feel due for a new adventure myself, and I mean larger in scale than a new job at the golf course, though that might tide me over.  I'm thinking something big, like sailing around the world or ballooning to New Zealand, or something enlightening, like a pilgrimage to Byzantium or a trek across Tibet.


On the writing front, I've been thinking more about self-publishing again, mostly thanks to my friend Kathy, who's been considering it herself and has therefore been sending me information and links to a bunch of different sites.  Not to give up on regular publishing by any means, but it does seem like self-publishing is getting to be more respected.  I'm still querying agents, but I'm also considering my options.  I'm confident enough about my manuscript, after passing it around to a number of people (including a local book group) that I feel I could at least break even on whatever I put into it fairly easily, and then go from there.  After all, it shouldn't hurt my chances of getting a traditional publishing deal later if something came along.  In any case, I'm still doing my research.  I hear tipsy golfers generally tip fairly well, so perhaps by the end of the summer I'll have enough saved to float a mad scheme.  More on that later.