Book Club Discussions, Screenplay Writing, and a General Update

Greetings to my One Hundred Plus follows out there.  I know it's been a while since I've posted but I've been going through a very rough patch in my life right now.  I'm trying to stay positive and take it one day at a time, but some days are harder to do just that. 

Last month, I had to go out of town due to my father being in the hospital.  He ended up being in the hospital for about two weeks (had back surgery a week and a half after being admitted) before being transferred to the rehab facility.  He has been there for a little over 3 weeks and I just found out Monday afternoon, via his church email/blog/google+ group that he developed pneumonia over the weekend.  They do have him on antibiotics and hopefully he will recover as quickly as possible to not be set back too much from his therapy.  He may be at the rehab facility through the middle of August or maybe the end of August; it's all dependent on how well he progresses.  He admits his muscle strength is very weak and that is one of the things they are working on - strengthening. 

In March, I started another transcription position with Nuance Transcription Services after having been unemployed for six months.  My primary accounts are rehab facilities across the United States in the Select group of facilities.  Every day I'm typing reports on patients who are in rehab for various illnesses or injuries.  Some back injuries or surgeries, some fractures of the hips/knees/wrists/shoulders, and some from strokes or other neurological/brain problems - subarachnoid hemorrhages or closed head injuries, et cetera.  Every day I type one of these reports I think of my father and how he's doing and I think I need to call him but then forget.  My feeling on that is that I don't want to be a pest checking on him every day and I need to be working rather than making phone calls during work hours.

My friend, Anita Fricks, asked me a few months ago to join her in the Reluctant YA readers book club and then I started going to the Wednesday Brown Bag Lunch book club after that.  The problem with the book club reads are that the choices, of late, are books I wouldn't normal read and probably still don't read them.  I hate going to a discussion having not read a book but if I can't get past a few pages, I really find it difficult to read the whole book.  Today's reading was "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury.  Now, I understand it was written in the 1940s; it's not really sci-fi but is futuristic, and all that and I know this has been touted as a great book but I didn't see it that way.  I guess because now that I'm a writer and knowing our mantra in this day and age is to "show, don't tell" and I felt that these stories were just telling us everything, no leaving us to imagine anything really.  I found the first few pages rather boring.  Last month's selection was "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café" and I didn't even get to attend the book club due to being out of town for my family.  I did try to read as much as I could before turning it in but after seeing the movie before reading the book, I couldn't follow along with the book.  The movie and book are two different things.  In the movie, I got the impression that Mrs. Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy's character) was Idgie telling the story.  In the book, Mrs. Threadgoode is telling the story, but she introduces herself as being the wife of one of Idgie's brothers.  The only brother mentioned in the movie was Buddy who got hit by a train.  I understand that things have to be done differently for the movie to work and there were some elements that were kept from the book in the movie (the lake freezing with the ducks and the ducks flying off with the frozen lake so there was no more water in the lake - just an empty space where the lake used to be; giving the drunk a drink to steady his nerves). 

So that leads up to my next point.  Making a movie out of a novel.  Screenplay writing.  I've not done it but when I wrote Finally Home several years ago, I could picture it as a made-for-TV movie - but have yet to actually write the screenplay for it.  I'm thinking of it. 

For those who have read the book, have you been able to picture the story as a made-for-TV movie?  Do you think it is worth trying to write the screenplay?  Do you think I could get someone to produce a movie from the story?  I look forward to hearing your opinions on this matter.  E :)

Looking for a New Avenue to Promote Your Books?

Are you looking for a place to promote your books? 

A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Anita Fricks, texted me stating there was a "Reluctant YA Readers'" book club at the local library the next evening and did I want to go with her.  I responded sure.  I took my book Finally Home with me, participated in the group discussion, even though I hadn't read the selected book for the month since I only found out about it the day before, and then talked about my book a little bit.  After the book club dissipated, I stopped at the circulation desk on the floor and chatted more with the librarian who is in charge of the book clubs, and Finally Home will be either the selected read for October or I'll have my own event, maybe on a Saturday, where I will be able to promote and sell my books. 

If you haven't checked out your local library's book clubs, do so.  If you can find one where your book possibly would fit the types of books they are reading, I suggest attending the book clubs, read the selected books and bring your books in to let the person in charge know about them and maybe get some of your books in the monthly selected reads. 

If nothing else, you are learning some new to you authors and reading other books that are on a similar line to yours.  But on the chance the librarian is stoked to have an author in the book club and would like your books or one of your books to be a selected month's read, then you have just gained a new audience. 

Good luck and remember book clubs are our friends because those readers will spread the word about your books.  E :)

Book Clubs

Sunday night or Monday morning of this week, I thought about adding some discussion questions to my website for Finally Home. Why, you ask? So hopefully a book club will pick up my book and add to their calendar. My friend and author, Faye Tollison, was recently invited to come speak at a local book club in her neighborhood to discuss her book To Tell The Truth. Coming up with the discussion questions is a bit harder than expected. With my state books, it was easy to come up with the discussion questions and include them at the back of the book because everything is based on clues in the books - the study guide uses this technique to take some of the clues a bit further as deeper discussion questions or research projects. With my generalized fiction and this being my only other print book, discussion questions are really needed if the book is being used for a book club reading.

I'm looking at a new way to make folks aware of my stories and I hope that book clubs will be one of the ways. If you are interested in having Finally Home as a book club read, please let me know and I will offer a discount on books ordered directly from me and they will be signed copies. Drop me an email at eeldering@gmail.com with the subject "Finally Home book club" and how many books you need, when you need them by and if you would like me to visit your book club.

I've started a new story, tentatively titled Imogene - Innocense Lost and this one will have discussion questions because I just feel that there is a place for this story in a book club at some time in the future. I will keep you updated on the progress of that story as it happens. The main goal the first two weeks of January is to get as many of the four state stories to be published this year written. Then I will work on Imogene and keep you updated to her progress. If you would like more information on the state stories, please stop by the JGDS blog or the JGDS website and see what's available and what's coming up.