Fans of Cherokee McGhee and Facebook friends of mine played a crucial role in the cover of my novel Love on the Big Screen.  The team at Cherokee McGhee shared sample covers and the feedback some of you all gave us caused us to have the title put on an actual marquee of a theater that meant something to me. Thank you all for participating in that.  The cover of Love on the Big Screen was truly a collaborative effort.  I’m looking to tap into that great experience and expand it.

I’ve got some ideas for the blog in the coming months.  I was thinking of inviting you all into the revision process.  Currently, there is a draft of a novel-in-stories that Cherokee McGhee has announced they will publish.  There were notes from the press for me and I worked on those revisions and just finished.  Now today, following this entry, I’ll go off to the post office and mail the manuscript to the editor.

I was thinking of doing a series of posts that share the title and a bit of each of the 13 stories.  Possibly you would comment on titles that engage you, first paragraphs that don’t, and so on.  There’s also some room for changes in the structure of the novel when it comes to the order of the stories.  I’m especially interested in the first paragraph any potential reader would try out in some virtual location such as the Google Preview through IndieBound or the “Look Inside” function of Amazon.  It’s in my mind that these are places people who use eReaders might check out books first.  Would you be interested in looking at excerpts of the current draft and offering your thoughts?

What else might you like for me to address?  I’ve got several ideas ranging from family film reviews from my daughters to offering my perspective on Book Expo America, a massive conference where I was given one of my first overviews of the publishing industry and the discombobulated state it’s in.  Currently, there is a lot up for grabs.  If you’ve got ideas for future posts, I’d love to hear them, and until then, here’s a little hello from my daughters and me.