So, how are your book sales going?

Today at the end of a long day at my second job (teaching), one of my colleagues asked about my first job (writing). "So, how's your book selling?"

I told him things were going okay, but that it was hard to know. This is what I've thought about since then:  well, I haven't cracked any best-seller's lists, after toying with sales rankings in the thousands on Amazon in December I've fallen to the hundreds of thousands in February. But my dad, he's practically sold 100 copies on his own. You can now find my book in real life places (Between the Covers in Bend, the Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland) and buy it or order is from bookstores like Powell's. So I don't really know how sales are going. I wish there was a magic formula to stimulate the book, some tipping point when sales would accelerate and I wouldn't know every person who has read or ordered the book. As of right now though, my goal of 10,000 copies seems impossible, but maybe I won't feel that way in another three months. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

So, I've arranged a bunch or words in a particular order and put it between two covers. Any takers?

Fighting for Democracy: Some Inspiration from Egypt

Octavio Roth artwork depicting right 26 from
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It has taken me a few days to start paying attention to the images and stories emerging from the protests in Egypt. After listening to the voices of a people silenced for so long, I felt inspired to do something. I want to fight for democracy and give a voice to those going unheard. Today I made the connection between the pro-democracy movement in Egypt and what is going on in public education.

It is not very democratic that those is the position to make decisions about education policy rarely enroll their children in our public schools. Local communities should be able to make the most basic and important decisions about their local schools.

It is not very democratic that education policy ties funding for public schools to unproven reforms. Education is a right, not a race.

It is not very democratic that corporations are allowed to take over public schools in the name of "reform" and without regard to school community input. Every child should have equal access to quality education. 

Fight for democracy in your community. Support public education!

One Young Adult Memoir Coming Up!

A couple of excerpts from the YA memoir in graphic form.

I'll admit I've spent some time in bookstores browsing through the N section to see where my books will someday sit (somewhere after Nabakov). I usually find myself in fiction but recently I've discovered many of my favorite books in the young adult section (I highly recommend The Book Thief and The Hunger Games).

When I first started shopping Through Eyes Like Mine to agents and publishers, a few noted that it might read well as a young adult book. Back then I wasn't so sure, but as this genre continues to expand and sell, well, I think they might be right!  Except that there is no "Young Adult Memoir" genre. There isn't a YA Memoir section at your local book store so I'm not sure where people would look to find my book. Who am I kidding? There's hardly a local bookstore anymore let alone a shelf in the Young Adult Memoirs section.  But you know what, there should be local bookstores and there should be a shelf where adults and young adults alike could find my book in autobiographies, or memoirs, or local authors, or wherever a bookstore might put me.

But before I start reorganizing imaginary local bookstores and establishing new literary genres, I'd like to know what you think.  Where would you shelve Through Eyes Like Mine in your local bookstore or library?

Oh, and if you haven't hunted down a copy just yet, you can go to the on-line bookstore in the sky (Amazon) or you can ask me and I can get you a copy. I'll even sign it for you. I'm all about options.

Adieu to 2010

Kogi's Blackjack Quesadilla and Spicy Pork Tacos.

2010 was the year of (in alphabetical order)

Beach Volleyball
Chipotle
Ed "reform"
Fertility/Infertility
Food trucks
Furlough days
LA summer that wasn't a summer
Oregon football
P90X

Buttermilk's Chicken & Waffles,
Brick, and Red Velvet Pancakes.

Pole Peddle Paddle
Self-publishing
Untagging myself on David's FB
Weddings and engagements
YA Literature (The Hunger Games & The Book Thief)


A tasty delicious year it was!

Dogtown Dogs' Spicy Angeleno, Morning
Commute and Trailer Trash with tots.

2011... let's do this.

Good Hours

A gift of words for Mom, a favorite winter poem along with a few images from one of Mom's favorite artists, Rie Munoz... 

Good Hours
by Robert Frost

I had for my winter evening walk—
No one at all with whom to talk,

But I had the cottages in a row

Up to their shining eyes in snow.

And I thought I had the folk within:

I had the sound of a violin;

I had a glimpse through curtain laces

Of youthful forms and youthful faces.

I had such company outward bound.

I went till there were no cottages found.

I turned and repented, but coming back

I saw no window but that was black.

Over the snow my creaking feet

Disturbed the slumbering village street

Like profanation, by your leave,

At ten o'clock of a winter eve.

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

First off, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has purchased/pimped Through Eyes Like Mine.  It has been an amazing process getting this book out into the world and initial feedback from several of you has been, "Uh, where are the pictures?"

So here are a few Christmas shots of Chet, Laura, Mitch and me for those of you reading the book this holiday season.

Pimp My Memoir: Through Eyes Like Mine for sale

For much of the past year, I've spent hours upon hours editing, revising, designing and redesigning Through Eyes Like Mine.  Much of that work has been done in the early morning hours.  Most of the process has been solitary.  It's what writers do and I'm a writer.  So although it's taken a whole lot of time and energy, I've loved doing it.

Now that the book is out, the marketing has begun. In this process, I'm much less comfortable.  I have to talk to people, email them, follow up with phone calls, and email or call again. I have to ask people to buy the book and that goes against all my socialist tendencies.  But if any of the editors from Penguin, Nan Talese, Tin House, Vintage, MacAdam/Cage, St. Martin's, Holt, HarperCollins, Graywolf, Picador, who passed on my book, had decided to publish it, they would have marketed the memoir so now it's up to me.

I decided to self-publish. I owe it to myself to pimp my memoir, so I'm asking for your help.

First off, to all of you who have already bought the book, thank you so very, very much.  If you read the book, please consider posting a review on Amazon, or as a comment on my website.  I would love to hear what you think, good or bad and to get people talking about the book.  Tell your friends and neighbors.  Write about it on your blogs.  Any press is good press, right?

If you haven't bought it, don't like to read, don't plan on reading it, I should have put this paragraph earlier because you probably aren't still reading, but just in case you are, you can help too!  Please share this post throughout the world of social media.  Even if you aren't so into books, please share with your friends.  Maybe they like books.  Maybe they will read it.  You too can pimp my memoir.

Or you can just chuckle about that little Noriko, (isn't she silly about all of this self-publishing nonsense) go about your day, and I'll simply carry on quietly, oh wait, I'm not supposed to do this quietly. Whatever.  This capitalism thing is hard for me, but I'll be out pimping my memoir, one book at a time.

NaNoWriMo: My Favorite Month of the School Year

NaNoWriMo:  National Novel Writing Month.  It's this insane idea that you can write a novel in a month.  I discovered NaNoWriMo in grad school (another Raymond Johnson contribution) and as a writer, or non-writer, or wanna-be-writer, it has always served me well.  But the past two years I incorporated NaNoWriMo into my eighth grade English narrative unit and it was been my favorite lesson/series of lessons ever.  The young writers program has great curriculum to help students or anyone who wants to try to write a novel.  The first time I saw the young writer's handbook, I wished I'd gotten something like it during my mfa program.  Last year I managed to draft a YA novel, and this year it's historical fiction, but what amazes me most are the stories, the sentences, the scenes from my students.  Here are a couple samples.

from Shattered Glass by Denise:   

At school it was like he wasn’t even there.  Teachers always skipped his name as if they were seeing right through him. 

Sam hated his life he hated the way they treated him like a ghost, as if he was the one who died in the car crash.  

Sometimes he would wonder if he had died and his ghost was still lingering in the real world and he just didn’t realize it. 

from Sports Addict by Hunter:  

Yelling. That's the noise that I wake up to every morning. My parents fight non-stop like two wild dogs. Every time I make a mistake, in school or just “mis-using” my knife at the table all I can hear is my dad and mom yelling. “Clyde Little this and Clyde Little that.” It’s all thanks to my stupid choice and addiction.

These are only a few lines from two of 60 novels my English students worked on last year and there are 65 more in progress right now.   Best of luck to anyone doing NaNoWriMo this year; I really should get to work on mine. 

Through Eyes Like Mine Mix Tape

So I was inspired by Raymond's 50 State Mix Tape and decided my forthcoming literary work (otherwise knows as Through Eyes Like Mine, a quiet book passed on by most major American publishing houses) needed a soundtrack.  So in order to build on a little buzz for the book's release here are some songs to set the tone for the book.

Through Eyes Like Mine starts with an epigraph of the first line from this song.



It's a Small World at Disneyland was the only ride I wanted to ride when I was two and made my first trip to the happiest place on earth.  Too bad I wasn't so happy.



Failure in our family was congratulated with an evil grin and the chanting of "Dunt, dunt, dunt, another one bites the dust."



Chet, Laura and I were in a production of The King an I at a small theater in Bend.  Maybe Anna inspired my teaching career when I was four.



My third grade crush and I both loved Devo.



For some reason my childhood memories of this song aren't of Cat Stevens, but of church on Sunday morning.  We went to St. Francis every Sunday.  Never missed.



The other song that plays pretty constantly through the memories of my childhood is the score from To Kill a Mockingbird.



Chet introduced my whole family to U2 in the mid 80s.  I remember hearing this song blaring from his bedroom.



This mix tape got me really excited about getting back to work on Overdue Apologies, the middle school memoir that's next in line.  There will be some fabulous 80s pop in that one.  Hope this odd collection of tunes makes you want to read my quiet little book.

My Decision to Self-Publish and Why I'm Sticking With It

After finishing my MFA I had a pretty solid manuscript in hand. It felt done. It felt different and real and I didn't cringe (too much) as I read over the draft months later. So I shopped it, landed an agent and thought, there it is! My book, written, sitting with an agent and she will make publishing happen!

Of course things didn't quite work out that way. My agent was great. She got the book to editors at big houses who read it and although they thought the book was beautifully written, it was a little too quiet or not quite what they were looking for.

That's okay. I didn't write it for any of them anyway! I wrote it for me, but I also wanted Oprah to pick my book for her show and now she's almost done with her show and won't be able to promote it.

Bummer.

But from what I hear, the publishing world is all sort of wacky turvy right now. E-books and e-readers and Snookie getting a book deal. Snookie. And it's so easy to self-publish. And so affordable. I can do it on my own.

Except then I have to do it all on my own.

So, I read and reread my book. I edited, revised, proof-read, read again, reread, reread and still, STILL there were mistakes. I made more changes. I printed proof copies. I shared it with my circle of talented friends who write and read. I heard from them and I made more changes, read, reread, revised, proof-read, added, deleted read again and again and again and again.

I designed a cover. I thought I liked it. I didn't. I changed it. I liked it again.

I'm waiting on what I hope will be the last proof copy. I'm really excited. I'm ready to send it out into the world. I hope to move 10,000 units. That's not so much. Wait, that's a ton.  

I hope you might want to read it.  

It's coming.  It's coming soon. 

Through Eyes Like Mine.  A book.  My book.  By Noriko Nakada.