WRITING & PUBLISHING, THE JOYS & PITFALLS Laura L. Valenti

One of the fun habits that several of us as writers enjoy is trading books with other authors when we find something of interest at a craft show or book fair. I've participated in several of these exchanges over the years, swapping a copy of Between the Star and the Cross or The Heart of the Spring for someone else's novel. As a result I've discovered some books that are real treasures, like Sage  by Debora Clark from Alton, Missouri and South Wind Home by Gerald Lewellen of Bolivar. Conversely, I've also come across a couple of books that I could not bring myself to finish. I simply didn't want to waste the time. After three or four chapters, they were boring me to tears and I placed them in my paper recycle box in that I did not to foist them on to anyone else.

Meanwhile, I received an email this week from a friend of a friend, and a fellow writer. A year or two ago, my friend had asked me to read his friend's first novel. I told him I would be willing to do so, but only with the understanding that in doing so, I would be free to be honest in my assessment of the writing. I told him, I would not be cruel but if his friend wasn't interested in my true opinion, good or bad, then let's not even go there. A few days later, I received an email that included the full novel. I'm sorry to say I no longer remember the name of the work. I was impressed with the fact that the author was quite knowledgeable about computers and espionage or at least, he was very good at convincing someone like me, who knows very little factual information about either subject, that he knew what he was talking about. Still, while the book was interesting, it wasn't a real page turner but since I had promised my friend, I kept reading.

And then suddenly on page 150, everything changed. The main character was on his way to see his best friend in Kuwait, whom he expected to meet him at the airport. Instead, he was met by a unknown colleague of his friend who promised to take him to meet his friend. His next stop, however, was not the hotel room he expected but a dark dank cell with no explanation of any kind. He found himself locked away in a foreign country, with his cries for help met only with silence. Now I was turning pages. I finished the rest of the book which turned out well and of course, I wrote back to my friend to say, this story really starts on page 150!

Ironically, I'd actually been given the same advice years before, regarding my novel, Between the Star and the Cross: The Choice.  My friend and mentor, the late Ellen Gray Massey, told me after reading it, "well, you know your book really starts at the beginning of the third chapter."  She immediately followed it with one of her favorite editorial phrases, "but of course, it is your book."  I wanted so badly to be done. I didn't want to re-write the first several chapters. I wanted to be done. But then I thought about the fact that I had asked her to read it and there certainly wasn't any point, if I didn't take her best advice. And so of course, I re-wrote it and she was right. It made for a much better book.

The author of this book wrote back this week to say he had never finished his book due to his age of 85 and his wife was now having health problems. He said he would really like to find a co-author and then perhaps self-publish. I encouraged him to look for a co-author through local writers groups but to be very careful when looking into self-publishing. While I have independently published all of my books (except the first one, The Fifteen Most Asked Questions About Adoption in 1985 which I was fortunate to have picked up by a traditional publisher), I've met up with several other authors over the years, who have told me, "It only cost me $3000 to get my book published and I'm so happy with it!" And while I'm trying not to go weak in the knees or let my eyes pop out of my head, all I've ever been able to think to say at a moment like that is, 'I'm so glad you are pleased."  Because what I'm really thinking is, my husband would kill me if I spent that kind of money on publishing a book as well as, how do they ever plan to make that money back?

The truth is I tell anyone who is considering self-publishing to research that as carefully as you would anything else. (Isn't that what the Internet is really there for?) I've never spent more than $500 for the initial cost of publishing one of my books and as a result, it doesn't take long to make that money back. For anyone who is looking into publishing, be careful. Do your homework. Make certain you have a good product to offer, re-write even when you don't want to and then find a reliable professional publisher so that one day you can truly enjoy holding your very own book in your hands. And best of all, you'll not have to worry that someone wants to slip it into their paper recycling box!
Laura L. Valenti, author

The Heart of the Spring,

The Heart of the Spring Lives On,

The Heart of the Spring Comes Home, and

The Heart of the Spring Everlasting

Between the Star and the Cross: The Choice and

Between the Star and the Cross: The Election

Ozark Meth: A Journey of Destruction and Deliverance with co-author Dick Dixon

PITFA





  

THE SOURCE OF OUR PROBLEM Laura L. Valenti

 A column in the May 4, 2016 edition of The Lebanon Daily Record  bore the title  "Drug Problems in Ozarks Start in Mexico". The article went on to claim that Mexico is the source of the drug problem in the Ozarks.   I’ve been in the writing business long enough to know that sometimes the columnist writes the headline and sometimes it is actually the editor.  Regardless, the FACT is that Ozarks drug problems originate in the Ozarks.  Mexico, China, and even California, are three of the country’s largest drug providers, who simply supply the DEMAND.

For ten years I worked for the Laclede County Sheriff’s Department, including running the county jail from 2001 through much of 2004. Since then I’ve been working as a volunteer board member of the New Life House, a Christian transitional housing program for women coming out of jail or prison. In other words, for more than 20 years I’ve been in the business of fighting drugs, through law enforcement and rehabilitation, usually right on the front line, person by person. And the simple truth is our drug problems are based right here at home, in a single four letter word – PAIN.

A child, an adolescent, or an adult of any age, who believes in their value as a person, who has been raised and supported to believe that, by at least one person—their parent(s), a grandparent or other relative, even a teacher, family friend, or neighbor—is much less likely to get involved in drugs or other high risk behavior than one who has not. As we see more families abdicate their child-rearing responsibilities, abandoning their children or letting them raise themselves more than not, we have seen an increase in the number of people of all ages who turn to drugs and alcohol in an attempt to dull or wipe out the emotional pain they struggle with. 

In 2006, Dick Dixon of Bolivar and I co-authored a book, Ozark Meth: A Journey of Destruction and Deliverance, in which we interviewed 30 methamphetamine addicts in sustained recovery, all residents of southwest Missouri. (We updated and re-released it again in 2013, including re-connecting with eight of the original interviewees.) They told us how they got on, how they got off and how they stay off meth. They also told us WHY and every one of them told us, one way or another, of the pain they were dealing with at the time. Whether it was the breakdown of a relationship with their significant other, the loss of their job, livelihood or place to live, each related a story that involved pain, fear and an overwhelming sense of loss and hopelessness. Ironically, almost every woman we spoke with, got involved with drugs because of the man or boy, she followed into the drug life. (Not incidentally, when we asked each how they managed to stay out of the drug life, once they broke free initially, 28 of the 30, told us the only way “to get out and stay out is called Jesus Christ”—their words, not ours.) These folks came from different communities and did not know one another. While 17 were arrested, 13 were not. Some went through Christian rehab and others did not; in other words, they were a diverse sample of folks in the Ozarks who get involved in drugs.

While there are those who will read this and say, well, this is all pie-in-the-sky because we can’t fix everybody’s problems BEFORE they get involved in drugs. That is true but we can realize that the source of the problem is not simple and while it is convenient to blame another country or culture, the basic problem is still ours.

Dick Dixon states that there are 4 steps to fighting drugs in America--education (pamphlets, classes), intervention, treatment, and interdiction (arrest). In America, we are really good at and have spent billions on Steps #1 and #4 but pennies on the two in between. And the reason? Because those two require getting involved. Intervention--stepping into someone else's life to say, 'hey, this isn't right. Something's got to change. I (we) know you are in trouble....' It goes against everything we believe as John Wayne-lovin' Americans. We don't need anyone to tell us how to run our lives and we don't like stepping into someone else's. Meanwhile, getting someone to treatment borders on the same territory. The bottom line is they both involve risk on the part of the rescuer. They involve relationships, getting involved face-to-face, person-to-person whereas handing someone a pamphlet or even arresting your basic drug user, does not. As Dick put it, the 'wrong' relationship is what gets people involved into drugs, the 'right' relationship will keep them out!

The first words against drugs are not to educate a child at age 8 or 10 about stranger-danger or to attend anti-drug lessons in school. The FIRST words against drugs are the ones a child hears before age 2—the ones that say, ‘you are a precious gift from God--to us, to me. We love you and can’t imagine life without you.” A child who hears and comes to believe those words has what is called SELF-ESTEEM. That is the real anti-drug. While it may seem an impossibly long term solution, it is obvious that the last 40 to 50 years of “A War On Drugs” involving everybody from the DEA, the FBI, and every local law enforcement agency in the US as well as billions of dollars has NOT worked. Maybe it’s time to try something different!

Laura L. Valenti, author

The Heart of the Spring,

The Heart of the Spring Lives On,

The Heart of the Spring Comes Home, and

The Heart of the Spring Everlasting

Between the Star and the Cross: The Choice and

Between the Star and the Cross: The Election

Ozark Meth: A Journey of Destruction and Deliverance with co-author Dick Dixon

www.BetweentheStarandtheCross.com

THE JOYS OF WRITING Laura L. Valenti

The general population gathers its ideas on the writing life, like so many other things these days, from television and the movies. A book signing means a line of eager readers, waiting to have their new purchases signed. A royalty check comes regularly in the mail, bearing generous figures. And of course that all the world adores a writer's latest work. Well, in the read world, not exactly.

Book signings do not generally engender a great deal of interest. I've been to some that brought out only a very few people and one in which no one came at all. Now that hurt! Royalty checks are few and far between and at the rate of 10-15% of the price of a book, for instance, do not make for much excitement in the bank account. And in the past, my husband at work and even my kids in school, took flack for some of my columns. But if a writer is blessed, then from time to time, they do receive favorable comments in reference to the words they have put on paper.

I've been told that there are writers in the state of Missouri who have signed off on major publishing contracts with New York publishers. (And as of last week, I can say I've actually met one!) I've also been told there are folks in Missouri who have won major amounts of money in the lottery. I suspect that their numbers are similar. The truth is that 95% of the writers (and artists) in this country and probably in the world, do NOT earn their living or even a major portion of their livelihood through their art. The do it on the side.

Some would wonder why but the truth is we do it because we have to. We have to let 'it' out, put our thoughts, our beliefs, our hearts down on paper or we will explode, or at least, that's the way it feels. I remember a quote by Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, to the effect of  'when I was looking for a place to write this book, I felt like I was pregnant with eight characters, and I had to find a place to start writing and quickly, to let them out.'

I am reminded, maybe more often than most, WHY I do it. While a paycheck is obviously quite the incentive, I, too, am motivated by those gotta-let-it-out emotions. But beyond that, I have benefitted from 30 plus years as a freelance writer, working with nearly a dozen different editors over the years. That has helped to mold and shape me as a writer. And the result is that I have been blessed in many ways.

In recent years, I have written and published six novels and they have been wonderfully received by readers and reviewers alike. I've also worked for eight years as a writer for a regional farming newspaper, Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. And it is in those two that I have found the greatest rewards for my writing.  The first is in meeting so many people--farmers and ranchers, artisans, young people, and other writers--whom I would never have met otherwise and the vast majority have been such a delight. As I've said more than once, 'my job is often to go for a beautiful drive in the country, have a charming conversation with some new folks and go home and write about it.' And they pay me to do this!

Best of all perhaps, and closest to my heart is when someone tells me 'I just love your Bennett Spring books;'  'your column last week was right on!' or 'I cried at the end of  your book, Between the Star and the Cross: The Choice.'  To know that something I've written has touched another person, made someone think or brought joy or tears...that's what keeps me writing!


Laura L. Valenti, author

The Heart of the Spring,

The Heart of the Spring Lives On,

The Heart of the Spring Comes Home, and

The Heart of the Spring Everlasting

Between the Star and the Cross: The Choice and

Between the Star and the Cross: The Election

Ozark Meth: A Journey of Destruction and Deliverance with co-author Dick Dixon

www.BetweentheStarandtheCross.com