Trading books created Friday Fun today. I met Linda Todd, my patient editor, writer, and dear friend at Panera’s in Alamo where we discussed writing, editing, critique groups, traveling, and recuperating among other topics. She turned over one of the proof copies of Captivate Audiences to Create Loyal Fans, which she used for our final edit.
I transported the copy to a Starbucks in Concord where I met with Peter J. Dudley, my long time writer friend. He loaned me a proof copy of his newest book to be published in June called Lifelike. I hoarded several of his book marks to hand out to members of my writing group. And, I loaned him the proof copy of Captivate Audiences to Create Loyal Fans.
We plan to write reviews for each other after our books are published. When Peter and I were in a seven member critique group that met in Alamo many years ago, he knew he and I would publish in the future. Tenacity and the love of the written word led his prediction to come true for the two of us. He is more prolific than I am. Lifelike is his fifth novel. Captivate is my second book. In the photo, I’m holding Peter’s first novel, Semper. He wrote two more novels for this New Eden trilogy, Forsada (2013) and Freda (2014). The same year, 2014, Peter published The Big Lie, a YA book.
Today we talked about Amazon algorithms, how to promote our books, and caught up on what has been happening in our lives between books.
Peter told me the inspiration for Lifelike was two photos that faced each other across a walkway at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. As he stood between them, he felt some energy and their story developed. I’m ready to curl up and start reading.
Glad you had a nice catching-up-with-friends day.