Monday, June 24, 2013

Historical Novel Society, St. Petersburg, 2013

Lady Joan, Gillian Bagwell
 Historical Novel Society, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2013

I looked forward to this conference from the moment I heard of this group. The North American association of writers of historical fiction gather every two years to enjoy the camaraderie of others of common interest as well as take seminars and meet editors and agents. The organization was begun by Richard Lee, a Brit, and every other year a meeting is held in London.

Though the British HNS has a paid staff, the North American chapter operates solely with volunteers.


Gillian Bagwell, author of The King's Mistress and The Darling Strumpet joined us for supper in character the night of the costume event. This talented woman wrote the script for the event incorporating the costumes participants chose to wear. It was hilarious!







Margaret George reading a sex scene from her novel.

Diana Gabaldon: Moderator of Sex Scene readings at the Historical Novel Society Meeting
Mary Burns,  Webmaster and Program Co-ordinator,
and Sharman Ramsey




 I had the pleasure of visiting with keynote speaker, Anne Perry, for about 30 minutes and found her to be a delightful conversationalist. Not knowing who she was, I invited her to join a group of us who were visiting in the lobby. She did.

Diana Gabaldon, one of my favorite writers, surprised me by being even more lovely than her pictures.

I volunteered to help and wound up ushering those who had signed up to their interviews with agents. In the process I met Jill Marr, Deni Dietz (who also has a company that publishes mysteries), and Natalia Aponte. Other agents in attendance were Helen Heller, Jean Huets, Greg Johnson, Kevan Lyon, Nephtele Tempest, Irene Goodman and Diana Fox.

Jodi Daynard and Ann Weisgarber, fellow panelists on Writing the American Experience, took sharing their writing experience seriously and regardless of the 8:00 hour on Sunday morning our panel held forth in an entertaining and enlightening manner. 

As a first time participant, I was impressed with the egalitarianism of the Historical Novel Society. The most successful enjoy the events along with novice writers.

Mary Burns, Marion and Gene Fox, Meredith West and Ann Chamberlin became friends before the conference ended. I now want to attend the conference to be held in 2014 just to see them all again.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Schedule


Been lots of places in the past year! Going lots more with a new book! Hope to see you there!!!!!!




SIBA Panel by Invitation September 6 - 9, 2012
Book Launch for Swimming with Serpents Speaker 4-Oct
Ladies Auxilliary St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club Speaker Noon October 11
Books Alive Local Authors Keynote 13-Oct
Public Radio Guest Oct. 17 4:00
PC Writers Guild Speaker Nov. 20
Supply Store U of A Auburn/Alabama Book Signing 24-Nov
Beach Library Bag Lunch Author event Speaker Dec. 7
Hub city Books Book Signing 10-Dec
Fiction Addiction Speaker 11-Dec
Blue Bicycle Book Signing 13-Dec
Something's Cookin' Book Signing 21-Dec
Bay Point Woman's Club Speaker 8-Jan
Wilcox County Historical Society Speaker 12-Jan
Panama City Genealogical society Speaker Jan. 19, Saturday 2013
Chatauqua Speaker 1/24/2012- 1/27 2013
Litchfield Books Speaker 1-Mar
Alabama Historical Society Member April 5-7
Daughters of the American Revolution Speaker 24-Apr
Amelia Island Book Festival Panel by Invitation, Author in School 30-Apr
South Carolina Book Festival Panel by Invitation 5/17/2012- May 19, 2013
Historic Chattahoochee Commission speaker 18-Jun
Historical Novel Society Panel by Invitation June 21 - 24
Decatur Book Festival  Speaker and Panel by Invitation 30-Aug
In Pursuit Released Events to be announced  September
Southern Independent Booksellers Association Movable Feast  Sept. 20-22
Florida Heritage Book Festival  Florida Heritage Book Festival  September 27-29
Nashville Book Festival Nashville Festival of the book October 11-13, 2013 
Pulpwood Queens Girlfriend Weekend Pulpwood Queens Book Club January 16-19, 2014

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Blurb for In Pursuit in Mercer University catalog

This will go into the Mercer catalog about
In Pursuit by Sharman Burson Ramsey

Creek half-breed and survivor of the Creek Indian War, Joie Kincaid, and the nemesis she rescued from certain death after the Massacre at Fort Mims are kidnapped from a tea room in London. Joie awakens with amnesia—after
having been struck on the head—to find herself in the hold of a ship sailing to the pirate Gasparilla’s lair in Charlotte Harbour and bound to a man she finds strangely familiar.

T o save himself and Joie, the scholarly Godfrey Lewis Winkel is forced to take heroic action. As a story of passion unfolds between the two, Joie Kincaid must overcome a childhood of abuse and rejection to accept love she had never known. Together they weather the tempests of pirates, illness, the Seminole War, family vendetta, and a hurricane to find their way to each other and a love neither could have imagined.

Interwoven in this action-packed adventure is the long-forgotten tale of hope and betrayal at the Negro Fort, the plight of the Red Sticks after Horseshoe Bend, the greed of a pirate longing for a legacy, Andrew Jackson’s single-minded vision of a nation’s manifest destiny, and the British officers who seek to redeem a promise and forge an empire.

In Pursuit continues the family saga begun in Swimming with Serpents. It is a story of kidnapping, passion, greed, love, and war set against the backdrop of the First Seminole War.

In Pursuit
A Novel
Sharman Burson Ramsey
Also available as an e-book

Follow half-breed Joie Kincaid in this action-packed adventure
of kidnapping, passion, greed, love, and war.
September 2013 | historical fiction
6 x 9 | 280 pp. | Paper, $20.00t | 978-0-88146-454-2 | P473
e-book, $16.00 | 978-0-88146-458-0

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Second Novel Learning Curve

The learning experience of a first novel prepares the way for the second. Still, as I edit the second pages for the publication of In Pursuit, I realize how much more there is yet to learn.
1.  One thing I learned with Swimming with Serpents is the importance of a title. Women are not drawn to books with any reference in picture or word to snakes.
2. The synopsis of the novel on the back of the book must draw the reader into the book within 200 words.
3. Helping words begin to jump out at you at a time when you cannot edit them out of the manuscript. For example:
“Arbuthnot!” Jackson spat with contempt, his eyes flashing. “At last I meet the infamous instigator of this war! It is you who have led these poor savages in the belief that the treaty they signed in my presence is worthless! You have encouraged them in their depredations. It is you who claim to speak for them."

Leaving out unnecessary helping verbs gives more power to the writing.
4. The people you meet along the way certainly enhance one's life.  Victoria Wilcox (Southern Son: The Saga of Doc Holliday) and I will be together on a panel soon and she has emailed me so that we can meet prior to that event at the Historical Novel Society. Her book was published in the UK. I look forward to learning more!