Over the holidays, I had modest goals for my YA fantasy novel, Maya and the Book of Everything, and by gum I exceeded them. I had a table at two venues—the Winthrop Christmas Craft Fair and at D.R. Struck’s Landscape Nursery. The books sold well at both venues—I think the beautiful cover draws people in—and I found that I really enjoy the process of chatting about Maya and signing books.

Reviews have started coming in, and I’d like to share one that my friend Beth Clark wrote. She made points that I hadn’t thought of,  and it is always fun to discover different aspects of one’s own work.

Here is her review:

“As I began to read this book, I was surprised at how quickly and well I came to know a variety of characters. Laurie Graves has the ability to create interesting and distinct personalities among her characters. Her descriptions provide vivid, visual images of person and place. I was pleased with the sense of gender equality among the characters; boys and girls, and men and women share prominent places in the action as well as their successes and mistakes. The differences between generations become blurred as the characters work together and learn from each other. Graves also has a knack for writing dialog that is interesting, authentic, and flows well from person to person. The plot of Maya focuses on the struggle between good and evil, with room for examining the gray areas in between. There is plenty of action in the book as the characters move between different dimensions of time and place. Graves maintains a nice pace and flow, drawing the reader in without the action becoming frantic or disjointed. The power of a book, in either written and verbal form, to influence people and their actions provides an interesting framework for the plot. Graves brings the story to a satisfying conclusion while leaving some suspense as a segue into book 2. I can’t wait to read more about the adventures of Maya and The Book of Everything in combating the forces of evil.”

Friends and acquaintances have begun recommending  Maya to librarians and store owners, and I am ever so grateful for this support. As an Indie author, I don’t have the backing of an established publisher, which means word of mouth is crucial for the book’s success. So many, many thanks to those who have read Maya and have taken the time to write reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

You can bet that I will pay this forward by writing reviews of some of the books I’m reading, especially those that are written by Indie authors or those that are produced by small publishers.

Onward and upward!

The other day, I was reading Lisa’s blog, Arlingwords and her post  “The Constant Reader, Remodel or Not.”   Much to my surprise and delight, I discovered that Lisa had read Maya and the Book of Everything. Here is what she wrote in that post:

“I turned to the blogosphere’s own Laurie Graves of Notes from the Hinterland. She has written Maya and the Book of Everything and it’s a wild ride. This one does not move at a stately pace, but whirls you along through time (and, dare I say, space) with magic books of knowledge. This is a young adult novel and it takes on issues of knowledge, truth, facts, and the responsibility to use them wisely for the good of the world. There is a hint that it may be the first in a series. I’m beginning to understand all those adults who were reading the Harry Potter books. Write on, Laurie!“

Thanks so very much, Lisa!

The funny thing is that for years and years, I had a problem with plotting. I could come up with characters, but I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them.

Well, I guess I’ve figured out how to plot a YA novel.

As Eliza Waters might put it, onward, ho to Library Lost.

I’m going to take a break from promoting my book to sing the praises, as the saying goes, of another book—An Honest House: A Memoir, Continued by Cynthia Reyes.  As the title suggests, An Honest House is the sequel to A Good Home, and while you will definitely want to read both books, An Honest house stands by itself.

In An Honest House, Cynthia Reyes recounts the struggles of living life with chronic injuries she suffered during a car crash some years ago. She writes “Time passed. The injuries didn’t. It took me nearly two years to face it: instead of recovering, I was getting worse. Alone in the house one day, I admitted to a series of stark truths. Easy mobility? Gone. Independence? Gone. Eloquent speech, quick wit, easy confidence? Gone, gone, gone.”

And what do you do if you’re a successful journalist who has worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, when pain keeps you in bed much of the time, and your beautiful new house starts to feel like a prison? Many people would have given up, spending the rest of their days as a brooding invalid.

But not Cynthia Reyes. Her perseverance—a trait that no doubt made her an excellent journalist—propelled her forward. While she did spend time in bed, she also read, did household chores, took short walks, started a blog, and eventually wrote a book, the aforementioned A Good Home.

Along with her perseverance, Reyes was sustained by her faith, her friends, and her family, especially her husband, Hamlin. No one with such injuries could make it alone, or without proper medical care, which Reyes, a Canadian, certainly received.

Now, a book about dealing with chronic injuries could be become a dreary chronicle of misery and complaint. However, nothing could be further from the truth with An Honest House. While Reyes writes frankly about her struggles, the book is not a litany of woes. Instead it is a joyful, inspiring book. Despite the pain, despite the discouragement, a love of life thrums through the memoir, and it’s my guess that this love was as essential as her perseverance.

In addition, her stories about her Jamaican family leaven the book. As a Mainer and a homebody, I am not very familiar with Jamaican culture, and I loved those stories. I especially liked the one that described the naughty ways of Reyes and her sister, of how they stole fruit from a neighbor’s tree and then hid in the basement as they plotted to run away to escape punishment. Readers, the story has a happy ending, but I’m not going to reveal it. Read it for yourselves.

I do most of my reading at night, before I go to sleep, and some books keep me up long past the time when I should have clicked off my reading light. An Honest House is such a book. “One more chapter,” I would tell myself as I read the book. Then I would glance at the clock, noting how late it was. “Just one more.”

Finally, when it was very late at night or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it, I would reluctantly set An Honest House aside and shut off my reading light.

And that, readers, is the sign of a very good book.

Today is a very big day at the little house in the big woods. My YA fantasy novel, Maya and the Book of Everything, is ready to be ordered as a Kindle ebook from Amazon and as a quality paperback from the publisher, Hinterlands Press.

In a few days, the paperback will also be available through Amazon, and this will include Amazon in Canada as well as in other countries. I will let readers know when it is available through Amazon, but I do want to mention that I will receive larger royalties if the book is ordered directly from Hinterlands Press. However, in the end, it’s all good, no matter where Maya is ordered, and we hope you enjoy the book.

For anyone who would like a signed copy, use the contact form, and I’ll get back to you.

For new readers of this blog, here is Clif’s nifty little description of my novel:Maya and the Book of Everything is a contemporary fantasy/science fiction novel set in various locations, including Waterville, Maine. The main character, Maya, is a fifteen-year-old girl who is drawn into an adventure involving a shadowy organization, the enigmatic Book of Everything, and the League of Librarians. Maya travels back in time, to distant planets, and to the mysterious Great Library, home of the Book of Everything.

Anyway, what a wonderful way to start the Monday after Thanksgiving. Truly, I am so grateful for all the help I’ve received and to have this book published.

As we get ready for the publication of Maya and the Book of Everything, I’ve had to come up with a number of extras, including an author photo and bio for Amazon. After looking at other YA fantasy author photos and bios, I decided it would be all right to have fun with mine, and that is just what I did.

Here is the bio:

Laurie Graves likes to say she was born in County Tolkien, but really she was born in Kennebec County—in Waterville, Maine—and is a fifth-generation Mainer and a Franco-American. Nevertheless, from the time she was young, she loved fantasy, fairy tales, and other folderol. When she was eleven, her father gave her The Lord of the Rings trilogy and that is when she discovered her true county of origin.

Laurie Graves writes essays and fiction from her home in the Maine hinterlands. For seven years, she and her husband, Clif, published and edited Wolf Moon Journal: A Maine Magazine of Art and Opinion. She has a blog called Notes from the Hinterland (www.hinterlands.me ), which features posts about nature, rural life, food, books, and people.

Maya and the Book of Everything is her first book. You can follow Laurie’s fiction writing and get information about upcoming books at her author website www.lauriegraves.me.

And the picture? Well, it had to include a book written by J. R. R. Tolkien, whom I’ve loved longer than I’ve loved Clif and my daughters. (I didn’t know them when I was eleven years old 😉 )

Onward, onward, and upward!

Clif and I are coming down the homestretch with my YA fantasy novel, Maya and the Book of Everything. Fourteen days left until publication on Monday, November 28.  Maya will be available either as a quality paperback or as an e-book on Amazon. (Soon after, the book will also be available through other outlets.)

Such a lot of hard work but very exciting, too. As I’ve written in previous posts, I am so thrilled by the cover, designed by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design. I’ve come to describe the color as “Maya blue,” no matter where I see it. Not surprisingly, blue is my favorite color. However, blue is not Maya’s favorite color—red is—and I mention this as an example of the differences between author and character.

But the mysterious Book of Everything, which is literally dropped into Maya’s messenger bag, is blue—beautiful blue, Earth blue, the color of our water planet.

Toot, toot, and la-dee-da! Bells and whistles and horns!

Maya and the Book of Everything is here at the little house in the big woods. I held the book in my own hands, and what a wonderful feeling. ‘Tis only the proof copy, and already we have found things we need to change, but the book is closer and closer to becoming a reality.

November 28 is the targeted publishing date, and it looks like we’re right on track.

Onward and upward!