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What's New Breaking news: Undiscovered has been contracted with Moody Publishers and is slated to release in September '09. We hope to have similiar results to announce soon regarding On the Threshold.
We'd like to ask you to join us on this journey. We need prayer partners who believe in our calling, marketing mavens who will talk us up to all their friends, and loyal pre-fans who will be waiting for the books to be published. Sure, you could wait until we're in the bookstores, but where's the fun in that? We don't want you to be burdened with trying to remember our names or the names of our books, so sign up for our infrequent, humorous newletters. If we have exciting--or depressing--news before our "scheduled" update, we'll send you a quick invitation to look at our website for the latest episode in the saga.
And just because we love you all so much already, we're instigating a contest. If you sign up for our newsletter, your name goes into the drawing. If you refer a friend, your name and their name goes into the pot. When we reach 1,000 subscribers, we'll draw for a winner. The prize: your choice of a MP3 player or free autographed books for the life of our writing career. We won't be offended if you pick the, as of now, more tangible item. You have nothing to lose, but you have a lot to gain! You'll be able to say, "I was one of Sherrie and Christina's first readers!" (Make sure to mention if you were referred by a friend...)
SIGN UP HERE TO ENTER CONTEST & RECEIVE NEWSLETTER | Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ashberry Lane Newsletter
Motto: Infrequent and humorous, but never infrequently humorous.
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March 2008
Welcome to our fifth newsletter! Come away with us to a magical land, a place where we are not starving authors, nor poor and unpublished. We'd like you stop by the real Ashberry Lane anytime you have a real hankering to mow some acreage or walk an overweight dog, but until then, enjoy this virtual Ashberry Lane.
If this is your first newsletter, you can view the archives on this page of our website.
1) Membership Update
It's been a whirlwind of subscribers over the last few months. 199 people since the last newsletter, to be exact. Accordingly, we have a glut of winners to announce!
First, the winner of the Ashberry Lane's Huge Book Giveaway--
Sharlene MacLaren!
 Shar is a wonderful author we met on Shoutlife and in real life at the ACFW Conference. One of the biggest blessing on this long road to publication is how gracious the already-published writers are to us underlings. Considering how fruitful and busy Shar's writing career has been thus far, we're sure she has nothing better to do than sign up for infrequent, humorous newsletters. But she did. And it was her actual subscription entry that was drawn from this huge bowl of names.
Here's a little bit more about her: Born and raised in west Michigan, Sharlene MacLaren attended Spring Arbor University. Upon graduating with an education degree way back in 1971, she traveled internationally for a year with a small singing ensemble, then came home and married one of her childhood friends. Together they raised two lovely daughters, both of which are happily married. Retired after teaching elementary school for 31 years, ‘Shar’ enjoys reading, writing, singing in the church choir and worship teams, traveling, and spending time with her family, which now includes her very wonderful, adorable, precious grandson, and in March and June of 2008 -- two additional grandchildren!
A Christian for over forty years, and a lover of the English language, Shar has always enjoyed dabbling in writing—poetry, fiction, various essays, and freelancing for periodicals and newspapers. Her favored genre, however, has always been romance. She remembers well the short stories she wrote in high school and watching them circulate from girl to girl during government and civics classes. “Psst,” someone would whisper from two rows over, and always with the teacher’s back to the class, “Pass me the next page.”
 Shar has several published works of fiction, Through Every Storm, a contemporary stand-alone (Dec. '06) and a historical three-book series set in Little Hickman Creek, Kentucky ('07 and '08), Loving Liza Jane, Sarah, My Beloved, and Courting Emma. Shar's next stand-alone contemporary hits shelves September 1, '08 and is titled Long Journey Home. Around the corner from that is her next three-book series releasing in '09 (The Daughters of Jacob Kane), beginning in January.
Shar is a an occasional speaker for her local MOPS organization, is involved in KIDS’ HOPE USA, a mentoring program for at-risk children, counsels young women in the Apples of Gold program, and is active in two weekly Bible studies. She and her husband, Cecil, live in Spring Lake, Michigan with their lovable collie, Dakota, and Mocha, their lazy, fat cat.
Second, the winner of Ashberry Lane's Easiest Contest ever is ...
(generated by a random number generator because we didn't want any more paper cuts)
Amy Goettsch! She's won a copy of Camy Tang's Sushi for One? Perfect timing, since we'll be interviewing Camy on our blogs later this month because Only Uni, the next book in the Sushi Series, is now available!
Shar and Amy are both winners in our book, but who are the biggest winners of all?
We are. We spent over an hour cutting up the little strips of paper with all your names on them. Soon the bowl filled with entries. Before us sat a physical representation of all your support for two little unpublished authors. Thank you!
~35 other blogs posted about our Giveaway, including Novel Journey (Never thought we'd get on there until we were published!)
~at least 225 forwarded emails for the Easiest Contest Ever
Because the scale of the HUGE bowl of entries wasn't readily apparent in the first picture, we took another one with us in the frame. Doesn't that give you a better perspective?
 That's Sherrie on the left and Christina on the right. In case you were wondering.
Special thanks to James Scott Bell, Robin Jones Gunn, Robin Lee Hatcher, Roxanne Henke, Tosca Lee, Bette Nordberg, Lauraine Snelling, and Camy Tang for donating books for the Ashberry Lane Giveaway! If you weren't the fortunate winner, go out and buy the books for yourself.
2) Sherrie's Shakedown
Since our last newsletter, I’ve been through helping Christina for weeks after her knee surgery, Christmas, being at the bedside of my mother-in-law as she was dying, flying down to Arizona for her funeral, working on my talks for a women’s retreat the end of February dealing with the subject of taming our emotions, receiving rejections in my writing life, and just life in general.
And isn’t that the way life is? Most of it is just the daily in-and-out of living; a run-on paragraph of minutia broken up with semicolons of crisis, sorrow, and disappointment. There are times we wonder whether we want to keep reading to the end of the sentence. But God is the ultimate author, and He’s writing the story of our lives. Not only does He use semi-colons and question marks, but He generously scatters exclamation points in our lives. Those times when we are suddenly aware of how wonderful life is: the joy of seeing spring bulbs breaking through the ground, hearing a grandchild say, “I love you,” enjoying your spouse, having a publishing house ask to see the whole manuscript, time spent with extended family, etc.
Jesus said He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Abundance is an exclamation point! It doesn’t mean we get everything we want, or that we’re sheltered from the rough passages of life, but that He allows us to experience the fullness of life, both the good and the bad. That makes life interesting and exciting!
3) Christina Cogitates
I can't do it all. Big surprise, duh. I'm so glad we scheduled our newsletter to be infrequent so it's one thing we're never behind on. Exciting things are happening in my writing life (see On the Book Front for details), which means my "normal" life is busier than ever. I want to have the spotless house and the home-cooked meals that give me such joy. I want to be at every baseball or tap practice with my kids. I want to always have the time and kind words my husband deserves. I want a clean office. I want to finish our home remodel. I want to be a daily blogger. I want to be a serious writer, spending hours a day on a manuscript. I want to be a good AWANA leader who calls her group through out the week and never forgets a birthday. I want to be a prompt scheduler of agents and editors for the 2008 OCW Summer Conference, to make the conference team proud. I want to be a master marketer to please my agent and future publisher. I want to read my Bible through in a year. Most of all, I want to live my life as to please the Lord. But it can't all be done in a twenty-four-hour day. So I pick the most important things and do them first and let the rest be blown away in the hurricane of my life. Whoosh! Now isn't that better? 4) On the Book Front
On the Threshold wins the prize for longest rejection letter lapse! We'd like to thank the internet age for making this all possible.
Through no fault of our own, a rejection hovered in digital limbo for three months. When we finally saw it, it was a hard one to read because it originated from one of our favorite publishers. Even harder to get over was that the wonderful editor had given very specific advice and reasons for the rejection and we missed the opportunity to act on it for those three months. Ah, email; can't live with it, can't live without it. However, we trust in God's timing and were able to apply the advice to our entry into a nationwide writing competition and to the full manuscript ANOTHER house asked to see. Also, the positive comments which accompanied the rejection gave us a confidence boost. If nothing else, we are persistent. Funny thing, though. In the time between the editor sending the email and us receiving it, we sent chocolate and a silly letter stating when the best times for us to accept a publishing contract were. We pretty much stalked the poor man when he knew he'd been perfectly clear in his declination. No worries, though. We'll apologize as soon as the restraining order expires. Christina's solo project Undiscovered underwent a 376-page line edit from freelance editor, Donna Fleisher. If you're in the market for a worth-more-than-she-charges editor, please, please check Donna out. As soon as the manscript reached it's potential, off it went to TWO houses who were waiting for the full book. Exciting times, indeed!
5) Fun with Sherrie and Christina
Do you ever regret having an active imagination? Why is that most humor comes from bizarre and offensive thoughts? Like a card for an Alzeheimer's patient. The front says, "I'm sorry you have Alzeheimer's." Inside, it reads, "I'm sorry you have Alzeheimer's." Or have you ever wondered how many owners of hybrid cars have ever tried to off themselves in a closed garage with the vehical running. Hours later, they're still breathing just fine. Make us feel normal. Send us your funniest, most bizarre thought and we'll publish the winner in our next newsletter.
6) More About Us
 Do you ever find yourself surfing the internet aimlessly? Then jump over to our blogs and spend a few minutes with us. You can find our online thoughts at The Mother Blog and Posting with Purpose.
Sherrie's been talking about being housebroken, a handsome soldier graduating from boot camp, and sticking it to her. If you haven't yet read it, please peruse this very moving tribute to her mother-in-law, an account of Majory Peterson's death. Christina's chatted about breaking it down, coupons, not running, and fun videos.
7) Take Action
Remember our goal of getting 1,000 subscribers? Once we reach it, we'll be drawing for the grand prize giveaway.
The fastest way to get there is for you to forward this to all your friends and family, asking them to subscribe to the newsletter, because we don't have a lot of friends. We live in a town of 625 people. But YOU have lots of friends. Everybody likes YOU a lot. So share the love and send them to www.ashberrylane.net/subscribe.aspx Could each of you get ONE other person to sign up so we can hold the drawing and be done already? Great!
8) Get Me Outta Here
If you don't want to be bothered with any other works of genius from Ashberry Lane, please click the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of this email and, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we will remove your name. Wait, that's what we did before we found the great service of Your Mailing List Provider . Now they do it immediately and then we gnash our teeth.
Newsletter sent on July 21, 2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ashberry Lane Newsletter
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July 2007
Welcome to our third newsletter! Come away with us to a magical land, a place where we are not starving authors, nor poor and unpublished. We'd like you stop by the real Ashberry Lane anytime you have a hankering to pull some weeds or mow the 15 acres of wild meadow, but until then, enjoy this virtual Ashberry Lane.
Old Motto: Making our dreams come true, one subscriber at a time.
New & Improved Motto: Infrequent and humorous, but hopefully never infrequently humorous.
1) Membership Update
Ashberry Lane has gone global! Our subscribers include people from Canada, Australia, Ireland, and even China.
We're going to tell you how many subscribers we currently have, so hold on to your socks, baby! CCXLV. Wow, doesn't that look like a lot of people. We love Roman numerals! The first person who emails us back with the English translation wins ANOTHER ENTRY in our fabulous contest.
Ten months of hard labor, starting with invitations to over 400 people, and we're almost 1/4 of the way to our goal. Those initial 400 know us and love us, yet the minority signed up. Most of you don't know us and are learning to love us, snotty noses and all. This begs the question: how do self-published authors sell books? We can't even give our newsletter away for free!
At this pace, we'll be drawing a winner in January of 2010. Put it on your calendars--save the date. But do you really want to hear us beg for the next three years? Don't get us wrong: three is a wonderful number. The Trinity. The Musketeers. The Stooges.
Three also will put you out of your misery. If each of you can get three friends to sign up, we'll have the drawing next month. But maybe you don't like this newsletter. Maybe you're just in it for the prize. Well then, forward this to your enemies and get three of them to sign up!
BREAKING NEWS: One of the new subscribers who signed up during the writing of this newsletter said, "I will be slightly offended if the newsletter goes from infrequent and humorous to chronic and boring." Visit this gem of a guy at Chad Boswell. His website is under construction, but you can find his email address here. Surely his great sense of humor would enjoy all those FUNNY email forwards!
2) Sherrie's Shakedown
There's been a shift in my thinking over the past two months. I'm not feeling the necessity to force things along in order to make them happen. For the past several years I've said that writing is a wonderful tool for spiritual growth in my life, as I've had to give up my natural tendency to control and manipulate to make things work out the way I think they should. I can write a novel, go to conferences and learn more about the craft, come home and rewrite the novel, and attempt to find an editor who's interested. But no matter how hard I try, only God can make the publication of the book come about. It's out of my hand and in His.
Which is where all of my life should be. On some new level, I'm now able to release many areas in a deeper way. My ninety-year old mother-in-law, whom I love very much, has been near death several times since May. The new church plant my husband I were working with is no longer part of our ministry. And my writing? I've felt like I could walk away from it, with no regret, if that's what the Lord wants me to do. At the same time, I'm continuing to persevere by attending conferences and building relationships. There's a sense of freedom and peace that comes with this relinquishment.
Dearly loved, loosely held. My new personal motto.
3) Christina Cogitates
Did you know that birthing a book takes way longer than an elephant's gestation? I've written the blurb, the synopsis, and all other needed documents for Undiscovered. In the very near future, our agent will send out the one-page inquiry she's formulated.
These last few months haven't been wasted, however. I've gotten several critiques by professional writers and ended up with quite a few wonderful endorsements. Without further ado:
Undiscovered crackles with energy and intrigue. The characters gripped me; the situation haunted me. I didn’t want to put it down. Christina Berry should soon take her place on readers’ bookshelves as a favorite author.
~Jill Elizabeth Nelson, Author of the To Catch a Thief series of romantic suspense (Multnomah)
Christina Berry writes with language that stimulates the senses while challenging our thoughts. She ties mystery with inspiration giving us good stories well told. That's just one of many reasons to look forward to more novels by this fine new writer.
~ Jane Kirkpatrick, Award-winning author of bestsellers All Together in One Place, A Clearing in the Wild and BookSense 76 Bestseller, A Name of Her Own (all by WaterBrook Press/Random House).
Christina Berry is a fresh face in the world of Christian fiction. Her stories are wonderfully told, rich in detail, exact in dialogue, and exciting from the moment you begin reading!
~Eva Marie Everson, Award-winning author of The Potluck Club series (Revell)
When I first met Christina Berry, I could tell right away she had what it takes to make it in this industry. I saw a vivacious personality, kindness in her eyes, and a tenacity to learn her craft and improve her writing. I’ve often heard at conferences that editors long to develop cordial and long-term relationships with their authors. The editor who takes a chance on Christina will not be disappointed. And as readers discover her writing and realize how friendly and approachable she is, they won’t be disappointed either.
~Donna Fleisher, Author of the Homeland Heroes series (Zondervan)
Could I have asked for anything better? A special thanks to these fine authors who gave of their time and talent. It's becoming a rarity nowadays for unpublished authors to get endorsements before a contract is signed and galleys are ready, which makes their encouraging words all the more valuable. Stop by their websites and order their books!
Hand-in-hand with writing a solo book is solo marketing. I must become more than 1/2 of Ashberry Lane. I'm thinking of tagging myself the Un-Author: the unpublished author of Undiscovered.
4) On the Book Front
No news is good news...or, as we like to say it, "No rejections means we're accepted!" Welcome to our delusional world. It's also biblical. Mark 9:40: "Whoever is not against us is for us." Maybe that should be our even newer and more improved motto.
No, really, we're very excited. Our agents went to ICRS--the biggest booksellers convention in the country. Our names were spoken there for the first time. Because of a conversation that occurred, we know On the Threshold is being considered this very week at one of our favorite houses.
5) Fun with Sherrie and Christina
Here's your opportunity to get a authentic dose of Ashberry Lane. Come see us in the real world!
We'll be at the Oregon Christian Writers Summer Conference from July 30-Aug 2nd. This is our fourth year of attending, but this year we're involved on the inside.
Reenacted Conversation:
On Camera
OCW Contact: Would you two ladies be willing to do hospitality for the summer conference in exchange for waived conference fees?
Us: Sure! We'd be honored.
Internal Dialogue
"Selves, we're getting off easy here. Is it ethical to accept such a great reward for such an easy job? Are we morally obligated to tell them?"
We should have slapped ourselves. Or, at the least, each other. Our responsibilities include gift bags for the 45 editors & agents, transportation arrangements for faculty, the Tabernacle sound system, table centerpieces, decorations, and snacks--all while staying within a budget. It has taken hours and hours of work, dozens and dozens of phone calls, and a draining struggle to be creative with materials rather than manipulating words. We're delighted to do our best for OCW, but it's been nowhere near easy.
We'll also be kickin' it at the American Christian Fiction Writers conference September 20-23 in Dallas, Texas! Remember the Alamo? We're just going to try to remember the names of all the new friends we've met on the ACFW email loop so we can stalk them in person. It's not too late to sign up, so if you're looking to move forward with your writing career and haven't yet attended a conference, we urge you to give this a gander. It's so exciting to think of being surrounded by all FICTION writers: people who hear voices, make up imaginary friends, and drool at the mention of a library. The Dallas police will be on alert with all those crazies converging in one spot.
Though it's too late--unless you have a time machine--to hang with us at the Seattle Pacific University conference last May, we had a great time listening to Allison Bottke's keynote and attending a plethora of writing classes. We'll be posting pictures of that confernence on our website soon. Oh, if you do have the ability to break through the space-time continuum, can you go to the future and see when we get published? Thanks.
6) More About Us
We invite you to stop by our blogs/online dairies: The Mother Blog and Posting with Purpose.
Sherrie's recent posts cover thoughts by Anonymous and forget me nots. Christina chats about the new critique she received from Tina Helmuth and the writer as an athlete. A post about Christina's award-winning writing is forthcoming.
7) Take Action
Remember our goal of getting 1,000 subscribers? Once we reach it, we'll be drawing for the grand prize giveaway.
The fastest way to get there is for you to forward this to all your friends and family, asking them to subscribe to the newsletter, because we don't have a lot of friends. We live in a town of 625 people. But YOU have lots of friends. Everybody likes YOU a lot. So share the love and send them to subscribe.
8) Get Me Outta Here
If you don't want to be bothered with any other works of genius from Ashberry Lane, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" as the title and, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we will remove your name. Promise! Newsletter sent on March 23, 2007. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ashberry Lane Newsletter
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Welcome to our second newsletter! Come away with us to a magical land, a place where we are not starving authors, nor poor and unpublished. We'd like you stop by the real Ashberry Lane anytime you have a real hankering to wash windows or scrub toilets, but until then, enjoy this virtual Ashberry Lane.
Motto: Making our dreams come true, one subscriber at a time.
1) Membership Update
Many new subscribers have joined us since the last issue. One such subscriber was Dana McCall, who was very excited about the prospect of winning free books for life. We informed her of our secret dark hope: that an elderly person will win and enable us to get off easy since he/she might even croak before we get published. She happily replied that she had just finished celebrating her 100th birthday. Stop by her blog and ask her to share the secret to aging so well.
If you found the above paragraph offensive, we're sorry. We write only to amuse ourselves.
Keep referring your friends and family to Ashberry Lane! We need ten more subscribers to meet March's monthly goal.
2) Sherrie's Shakedown
In this issue, I’ve decided to just share a bit of what’s going on in my personal life. Don’t worry—I won’t get too personal!
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that my husband and I are involved in a new church plant in the small town of Dayton, Oregon. Master’s Hands is a Baptist-based church that wants to reach out to the community and meet the needs of people who may not usually attend a church. We are hoping to have a ministry to those with addiction problems, homosexuals, single-parent families, and just your “average” person. We’ve been doing practice services for the past month, but our first official meeting will be on Sunday evening, April 1. (And no, I’m not kidding!)
John and I had been in full-time ministry for years, until the late 90’s. I was struck with a debilitating depression and burnout in both church work and my job as a nurse. I went through months of questioning the reality of my faith and knew I would never be interested in being a pastor’s wife again. With the aid of a Christian counselor and hours of solitude, I was able to rebuild my faith and work through the reasons for my depression. (This experience was useful when Christina and I wrote On The Threshold, as one of the characters deals with depression.)
Now, nine years later, I am excited to be part of a new ministry. God has healed my heart and spirit and I’m free to be used by Him. It’s with joy that I look forward to the unknown future, trusting that the Lord will continue to guide each facet of it, both in my writing and my role as a pastor’s wife.
3) Christina Cogitates
I actually made the February 28th deadline on finishing the first draft of my solo novel, Undiscovered. Responses to the first few chapters from my family and critique group have been fantastic. This is what my agent had to say after reading chapters 1-3:
Okay, so not fair! Where's the rest???!!!! Wow. Great job. I'm totally
enthralled - hooked. So, when do I get to see more? This is very
good, Christina. I'm excited to get all our pieces together so we can send it
out. Tell me again...how far along is the ms? Way to go!
Sarah
Pray that I will focus on the tasks at hand (writing the synopsis, back cover copy, and bio) while still putting the Lord and my family at the top of my priorities. (Happy 11th Anniversary, Kev! I love you!)
4) On the Book Front
Still nothing concrete. Or carved in wood. Or scribbled on a notepad. Or blowing in the wind. Our agent has had more time lately to focus on getting our proposal for On the Threshold in front of more people. Currently, our project is at five Christian publishers. Where it's at in those houses, we're not sure. It could be at the top of their pile, or buried in the bottom, or shredded and stuffed into pillowcases for those office snoozes. But until we receive a rejection, we continue to believe we're under consideration.
Speaking of rejections, we received the nicest rejection letter early this month. Usually, these dreaded monsters are short and generic. Over the last year, we noticed a definite improvement in the quality of our rejection letters. We celebrate the progress! The latest one was a full page of small print. Not only did it bear an original signature, but the editor had addressed the envelope himself, too. Yes, we authors are so desperate as to notice such details.
Here's a few snippets of the letter, which was penned well. (Hint: if you're familiar with the CBA market, we just told you who rejected us.)
I apologize for the delay in responding. With literally hundreds of
manuscripts and inquiries coming my way--plus trying to get the normal
day's publishing work done--I confess I fall behind.
Thank you for providing me with a proposal for On the Threshold. I read
through the materials and was impressed with your writing style and the
focus of your book.
We reviewed your proposal and the decision was to pass on it...it's just
not what *** is looking for at this time. I know it's not what
you or I was hoping for. I hate to bring these bad tidings to you because
I know the tremendous amount of time, effort, and sweat, and tears that
you have put into producing this material.
Christina/Sherrie, by saying it doesn't work for *** has nothing to do
with the quality of your proposed book--it has to do with the current
marketing and publishing focus of ***. It is never easy to say
no to an author who sincerely desires to share their thoughts of God's
leading in their life. Because I receive about 2500 inquiries and
proposals every year--and we only publish about 25-30 books a year--I
have to say "no," way, way too many times and I feel badly. It is
certainly the toughest part of my job. It is my desire that you glean
from this response the confidence worthy of your proposed manuscript.
Don't give up on your aspirations for publication. May all your writing
be blessed of the Lord.
5) Fun with Sherrie and Christina
Introducing the interactive part of the newsletter...
How many writers does it take to change a light bulb?
Write back to us with your best punch line. We'll choose our favorite answer and publish it along with your name and blog/website--if you have one--in the next issue of our newsletter.
6) More About Us
We invite you to stop by our blogs/online dairies: www.sherrieashcraft.blogspot.com and www.authorchristinaberry.blogspot.com
Sherrie's recent posts cover cheap plastic surgery, ditzy blondes, and the cold North. Christina chats about the bucket brigade, a 30-day challenge for wives, and getting your mental game going.
7) Take Action
Remember our goal of getting 1,000 subscribers? Once we reach it, we'll be drawing for the grand prize giveaway.
The fastest way to get there is for you to forward this to all your friends and family, asking them to subscribe to the newsletter, because we don't have a lot of friends. We live in a town of 625 people. But YOU have lots of friends. Everybody likes YOU a lot. So share the love and send them to www.ashberrylane.net/subscribe.aspx
8) Get Me Outta Here
If you don't want to be bothered with any other works of genius from Ashberry Lane, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" as the title and, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we will remove your name. Promise!
Newsletter sent on January 11, 2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ashberry Lane Newsletter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to our inaugural newsletter! Come away with us to a magical land, a place where we are not starving authors, nor poor and unpublished. We'd like you stop by the real Ashberry Lane anytime you have a real hankering to wash windows or scrub toilets, but until then, enjoy this virtual Ashberry Lane.
Motto: Making our dreams come true, one subscriber at a time.
1) Membership Update
November 9, 2006: A great day in history. Yes, that was the official launch date of our website. Since that day, we've had thousands of page hits--even on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Not too bad for no-name rookies like us. Though we may be no-namers, we are ambitious so we set a goal of having 1,000 subscribers before our book gets published. An open-ended goal, as we don't have a publishing contract yet.
Baby steps, though. We wanted 100 subscribers by the end of the year. Friends stepped up and made it a reality. We squeaked into the New Year with 105! We've decided to take it by 50-people increments now, so we'd like 150 by the end of January. Who's our best friend? Should we let the numbers speak for themselves?
Brooke Halgren of Salem, OR has credit for referring 10 people!
Of course, it might mean nothing about her friendship. Maybe she just really wants a MP3 player. Which is a terrific reason to forward this email to all your friends and family! You will get a referral credit if they sign up for the newsletter and yet another person will become part of helping our dream come true.
Seriously, having an interested base of people waiting for our book to come out is a huge selling point to a publisher. We thank you...and our agent thanks you, also!
2)Christina Cogitates
Many of you have voiced a desire to be a writer. Take two Tylenol and see if the feeling passes. If it remains, there is but one thing left to do: WRITE. Lauraine Snelling spoke at the very first OCW conference we attended. I still remember her speech. Take this line: I am a writer. Now, say it out loud with an emphasis on the first word. Now, again with the second. The third. Fourth. See how its meaning changes? The first step to being a writer is acknowledging your desire. Actually tell yourself, "Self, I am a writer."
But what makes a writer different from, say, a shoe shiner? Well, a shoe shiner shines shoes. A writer writes. Are you saying you want to be a writer, yet never putting anything on paper or into the computer? You don't have to write a novel, or a story, or even a devotion. Take this beginning time to capture a feeling. A great author I know once wrote a short snippet of fiction conversation right after an argument with her husband. She hasn't used it in a book yet, but she will. And the sentiment will ring true because she caught the emotion when it was fresh. Jot down memories, insights, jokes, etc... Get your body and soul used to the mechanics of writing, even if you don't have your story yet. Karen Ball posted a great blog on Charis Connection today about finding the story you are meant to write.
Next, you start telling your family and friends. Don't be surprised if they give you strange, confused looks. Authors are majestic entities to be kept up on pedestals. They are creatures who live in a world different from reality. They are not our sisters or best friends or enemies. Hah! It takes time to dispel these myths, to humanize the followers of the literary muse. (Authors will all tell you that there is no muse. Writing is made of determination, commitment, and time.)
Okay. Are you ready for the next step? Tell a stranger. Mention it to the librarian. "See these books I'm checking out? Not only am I a reader, I'm also a writer." Tell the gas attendant as he hands your receipt to you. "Boy, it's sure hard to pay for gas as a writer." Let the postman in on your career choice. "Just a warning: you're going to be bringing me a lot of rejection slips now because I'm a writer." You will feel silly. You will question whether anyone actually cares if you're a writer or not. The point of this is not to enlighten the world. The point is to desensitize yourself from the embarrassment of revealing your heart's deepest, secret desire. Soon, you and the dream of being a writer will become one!
3)Sherrie's Shakedown
Connection with the past. That's been a fun part of putting our subscription list together.
Nancy was one of our first subscribers. She was also my 7th grade teacher over 40 years ago. Last month she was the realtor who helped my parents find a house in Oregon when they moved from California. Connection.
Kay and Barbara signed up. Our history goes back 34 years to when the three of us, plus our husbands, were in a singing group together. (Boy, did we ever look groovy in the 70's!) Old photos show times together that have generated memories that will last a lifetime. One of my favorites is when we three women were all pregnant at the same time. We had a singing "uniform" that was a long green dress with an empire waistline. With our bulging bellies, my mother called us The Singing Watermelons. We three couples haven't been together in years, but I know when we next see each other the conversation will flow without effort. Connection.
That's what we want with all of you--connection. Mr. Webster defines that word as "an association or relationship." Sounds good, doesn't it? (I just noticed that his last definition is "a purchase of illegal drugs", but we won't go there!!) Some of you have never met us. That's a good reason to check out our website (www.ashberrylane.net) or our blogs. You'll be able to get a sense of who we are. Drop us a note or ask a question. We'll get back to you within a few days. We want to build a relationship with you, whether you know us personally or not.
4) Our Apologies
We've heard unsettling tales of people trying to subscribe through our website and never hearing back from us. But, wait. It gets worse. Then these poor souls are contacted by one of us saying, "Hey, you! You better sign up for our newsletter. Or else...we know a guy who knows a guy."
"Stop!" they cry. "We've signed up five times now!"
We do apologize. Please whip us with limp linguine. Our website has a problem. We're staging an intervention. We have a plan for a new and better system.
Question: Why do we want you to sign up? and why can't we just send you the newsletter? That, my friends, would make us a spammer. Or...um, spammers. The fine for doing such a thing ($11,000 an incident, is our understanding) is far greater than the miniscule amount we hope to make as authors.
4) On the Book Front
No news about our firstborn novel, On the Threshold, yet. No news can be good news, right? The proposal is currently being passed around six publishing houses. We'll let you know as soon as we hear good news. If we hear bad news, we'll put it in a block of cement and throw it in a nearby lake. We'll be starting the next book in the series in April.
During the interim, Christina is writing a novel on her own. With a working title of Undiscovered, its boasts 180 pages so far. She's due to finish in late February. But since ol' Feb.is the shortest month of the year, she might steal a little from March.
5) More About Us
If you just can't get enough of us, please stop by our blogs. And leave comments. Otherwise it doesn't look like we have any friends at all. You can post as "anonymous" and still sign your name on the comment.
Here's what we suggest. Bookmark our home page www.ashberrylane.net and access our blogs through our personal pages. Or you can go straight to them using these links:
The Mother Blog - Sherrie's
Posting with Purpose - Christina's
6) Take Action
Forward this to your entire address book with a little note asking your contacts to join the Ashberry Lane Newsletter. Or are you ashamed of us? If you forward this, within 4 minutes and 9.5 seconds, you will blink and Bill Gates might send you a gift card.
7) Get Me Outta Here
If you don't want to be bothered with any other works of genius from Ashberry Lane, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" as the title and, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, we will remove your name. Promise!
This is the first invitation letter we sent out to announce the launching of the website and the contest on November 9, 2006. Dear Everyone,
Who are we? Well, some of you would recognize our names right away as a relative (by blood or marriage), a friend, a fellow writer or church member. Some of you might have met us lately and need to look at a picture to put a face to the names. Others of you might have to look back a few years into those distant memories to recall exactly who we are. You might have sold us our first house, or stitched Christina's head up after a nasty fall in Nigeria, or were Sherrie's 7th grade teacher back in ??. The fact is, at some point, our lives have intersected.
Why are we writing to you? We've been hard at work ("The dream comes through much effort..." Ecclesiastes 5:3) putting together a website to be a point of contact as our writing career gets closer to the professional level. We have always wished to be along for the ride with an author as he/she transitioned from unpublished to prolifically published. We wondered how he/she got there. How many rejections did he/she receive? We're looking for someone to share our journey with--or "with whom to share our journey," for all you English majors.
Married, white females, blue-eyed , Avg. ht. 5'9", Avg. wt. 140#, Avg. age 41. Seeking loyal readers-in-waiting who take books for long walks on the beach and would rather finish a gripping novel than stare at the sunset. What can you do? Please, please, PLEASE go to www.ashberrylane.net and sign up for our newsletter. We're giving away a great prize to the winner of our newsletter contest and your chances are much better than playing the lottery! (Also, stop by Christina's page to connect to her blog. If you've ever given a compliment about her daughter's long, curly hair, have we got a make-over for you!) Now that the elections are over, it's time for you to win something. So forward this invitation to all your friends and get them to sign up for the newsletter, too. This will double or triple or... your odds. If the majority of you can entice only 2.3 more friends, we'll be drawing for the prize next week!
A special shout-out to Mr. Ernie Wenk for being the first to sign up...even before the website was announced to the public!
Thanks for visiting Ashberry Lane!
Sherrie & Christina
Mother/Daughter Writing Team |
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