Rudyard Lake- There wouldn't have been a story without it

Ava and Jack's story all started when I came across Rudyard Lake on Google Maps.  Sometimes when I am bored I go on Google Maps and travel around the world. Being a single teacher, it is probably safe to say that I may never get to see places like The Grand Canyon, Hollywood, The Rocky Mountains, New England in the fall, England, Germany, Australia....
But I have visited all of these places on my computer.  So when I was thinking about writing a story I was also at the same time traveling through England on Google Maps and came across Rudyard Lake.

I am not a beach girl- the sand, the waves, the burning sun are not my thing.  But give me a crisp lake with mountains or trees surrounding it and I am in heaven.  I couldn't tell you what it was about this lake that peaked my curiosity but before I knew it I was down to street level exploring as much as I could of this lake.  I found the website and was fascinated by everything I read.  The tie in to Rudyard Kipling also captivated me as I have always loved poems and in particular the poem, If, by Rudyard Kipling, which makes an appearance in the book!

At this point I knew I had found my setting. I would write a story about a young girl who goes to live on Rudyard Lake for the summer and well... you know the rest.

When I would get stuck during the writing process I would often visit the Rudyard Lake website -www.rudyardlake.com and do some more research. Several times I had come across the Rudyard Lake Steam Railway and eventually I added that into the story as well. - www.rlsr.org

Not long after I published Double Sunset I went to the website and clicked "contact us" and quickly wrote and email telling them that I had written a story set on the lake. 

 Hello, I live in Baltimore, Maryland USA. a year and a half ago I started writing a fiction                       story and used Rudyard Lake as my setting. I have never been to the lake or England but                       fell in love with it\'s beauty on google maps and through this website. The story is                                   available on Amazon Kindle. It is called Double Sunset and also includes the summer solstice double sunset that can be seen from near the lake. The steam railway is in the book as well. I wanted you to know about my book and thank you for letting me use the lake and it's surroundings as my setting for my story. One day I hope to visit and see just where my characters lived. 

Kristin Smith Novak 

Double Sunset by Kristin Smith

I really didn't expect a reply and was completely blown away when Ray Perry, Chairman of the Rudyard Lake Trust replied the next day! (yes another happy crying moment for me).

Hi Kristin 

Many thanks for advising regarding your publication, seems you really did your homework and got to know the area even though you have never visited?

I look forward to reading it & will share my experience with others around the Lake in the hope that they will download it too & who knows you may become so successful a writer that a ticket to Rudyard will be just pocket money!

I hope so & then we can all meet you & show you around.

Yours is just the kind of story that our local newspapers just love & if you could provide me with a little more information about yourself, ideally a photo holding your book, I will be only too pleased to put a piece together & who knows it could lead to some more sales for you?

Will be pleased to assist & look forward to meeting you one day in the not too distant future I hope!

Good Luck,

Best wishes

Ray Perry

Chairman

The Rudyard Lake Trust

PS my grand daughter who is just coming up to 3 is called Ava!

I hope Ray doesn't mind that I included his email here but I had to include it to share this wonderful moment!

Several email correspondences later I began to refer to Ray as "My good friend Ray from England." He was so encouraging and thoughtful!  I sent him my story of writing the book and before I knew it he was emailing to tell me that my story would be in the local papers!  Yes more tears!! 

Ray sent me a copy of the paper and I absolutely have no words to describe the joy reading it!  The communication with Ray over the past 6 months have been so much fun!  He sent me a Rudyard Lake Calendar, pictures and a DVD of Rudyard Lake in the 1940's. It would be absolutely beyond my wildest dreams to ever be able to go there and put my feet in the lake and meet Ray! 

I have had so many blessings surrounding this book but reaching out to the Lake and making a connection has been one of my very favorite parts! I am so glad that I thought to reach out and let people at the Lake know I wrote this story.

Sometimes in life we make decisions that open us up to the world! 

And the Journey Just Kept Getting Better

After publishing to Kindle, I was completely unprepared for what followed.  I had never given any thought to how people would react and therefore I was not prepared for how I would react. I felt like I was living in an alternate universe. Everyday I would receive comments from friends and family about this endeavor. I found that most people were still not able to read it because they did not have a Kindle or weren't comfortable reading it on a device of some sort. I have exclusively read all of my books (well over 30) on my iphone for the past 2 years and silly me thought that others had caught up to this technology as well.  I guess there is still something to be said for opening a book and feeling the cover and the turn of the pages that some people will never be able to let go of.  
So my next dilemma was how to get paperback copies so that more people (including my Mom and Dad) could read the story.  I knew that I wasn't ready to query publishing houses- I had neither the time, the skill or the money needed to do so.  Back to researching I went and very quickly found that Amazon has a sister company that will print your book on demand.  www.createspace.com will take your uploaded file and print as many copies as you want and they will link to Amazon so paperback copies can be ordered there as well.  Was I dreaming?  This can't be accurate?
Well it was, it I found the process to be very easy!  I worked on editing some more, to correct more errors that I had found while reading the kindle version and set about uploading my file to Create Space.  They even had a template to design a cover.  I tried so hard to make Sandy's beautiful artwork fit with the template, but the words kept getting cut off on the top and bottom.  I was sad and discouraged because I really wanted to use her cover. Having given up on being able to use it, I started to search through the stock photos they had available.  I found the perfect picture and could not believe how well it fit with the content of the story.  There was a lake and a setting sun- was I dreaming?  This was too good to be true! When the picture was placed on the cover and I added the title and my name, I once again cried- what a very surreal moment! 

I ordered a proof copy to review and patiently waited for it to arrive.  All I wanted was to hold my book in my hands!  When it finally came, I was once again crying as I flipped through the pages seeing the words I had written so beautifully displayed!  Yes I guess there is something to be said for holding a book in your hands, feeling the cover and turning the pages!
I spent that weekend reading through it and making note of more changes. I couldn't believe, with as many times it had been edited already by me and Amy, how many small errors I still found. Once I had made those changes to the uploaded copy I was able to order a few more copies.
Finally my Mom was able to read the story!  This was very exciting for me and I loved talking to her and my Dad about the whole process.  Their excitement was my excitement and it was such a great experience for them to finally see what I had kept hidden for so long.
My Mom's words to me, after she had finished reading the story, were the best words I have ever heard- "I began reading it because it was you who wrote it.  I finished reading it because it was a great story."  It made me so happy to know that she genuinely loved the story and not just because her daughter wrote it.  This boosted my confidence a little more.
To this day, I am still blown away by the positive reviews I have received. When I published it, I still was unsure about the story and if people would like it or how they would respond to it.  6 months later, I am still overwhelmed when someone tells me how much they loved it! 
My Mom became my next editor, finding a few more tiny errors that I quickly fixed and then ordered more copies and began to promote the book through Amazon. I literally floated through the fall and can only remember a few other times in my life that I had felt so satisfied and completely happy. I think this is the real reason I wrote this book- to fill my life in a way that I hadn't been able to before.  
There is still so much more to share about this time in my life and next time I will detail contacting Rudyard Lake- as if publishing Double Sunset weren't thrilling enough, the response I received from England overflowed my cup!
I'm signing off with such a smile remembering back to September and all the excitement! 
Until next time,
I'm working on book 2- shhh don't tell anyone! 

Publishing- a strange new world

Summer 2013

Throughout the whole process of writing Double Sunset I was very protective of my story.  Sharing it with anyone was extremely difficult for me.  When I first began writing I didn't want anyone to know.  I was almost embarrassed to tell people I was writing a book.  I can't explain the feeling properly but for some strange reason I felt the need to keep it close.  I didn't want the questions, the expectations, what if I never finished it? Telling my family and trusted friends was the first step, even though it was difficult.  Had I not shared it with a few people I may not have finished it.
I never had a good grasp on whether it was good or not. I loved it but I am not a trained writer and had no idea how other people would take it.  I think having Amy edit it and slowly telling friends helped me to step out of the shield of protection and accept that maybe other people would want to read it. 
I am not sure when it happened, but sometime in early June I realized that it was ok if not everyone loved it, or even liked it.  I thought about how many books I had read and just didn't like.  Once I accepted that not everyone would like my story and that it was perfectly ok, I became more comfortable with telling people I had written a book. Even saying that now, after all this time, is slightly foreign to me. 
I wanted my Mom, and other friends, to read it and I knew that she wouldn't read it in a Word document on the computer so I began to research publishing options.  Everything I read was very discouraging. It is extremely difficult to get a publishing company to accept your manuscript. I was expected to send out hundreds of "queries", which are short, detailed synopsis of your story to send to publishing houses. The thought of writing a query was daunting and I wasn't sure I could do it.  I was discouraged and not sure I had to time, energy or money needed to send my queries to multiple publishing houses.  Everything I read was discouraging and took the fun out of it for me. I really didn't think publishing was going to be an option for me.
Well somewhere in my research I came across a blog detailing self-publishing on Amazon for FREE!  Immediately I was consumed with this possibility.  Without giving it much thought, I dove head first into the world of self publishing.  Amazon made it very easy, but it wasn't an easy process at all, if that makes any sense.  I downloaded a book from Amazon called Building your Book for Kindle.  I finally had a place to start.
I spent the month of July preparing my manuscript. Most of my formatting had to change as well as adding things like a linked table of contents, copyright page and acknowledgments.   I think by the time I was finished I felt like I had received a masters degree in publishing a Kindle book. 
For some reason I was consumed with the cover of the book.  I had yet to submit my book to Amazon but was stressing over how to get a book cover.  Enter once again my good friend, Sandy.  She offered to create a cover and I was thrilled! I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like and had fun trying to explain it to Sandy so that she could sketch it out.  Several test runs later we had a beautiful cover for Double Sunset! 

It was exactly what I wanted and I loved it!! For those of you who have read the book, Katherine and John are at the top with the first sunset.  Ava and Jack are on the bottom with the second setting of the sun.  Sandy did an amazing job.
So now the story formatted, all the parts of a book completed and cover art done. 
While I was in the process, I began to think about how I would tell people that I had just published a book.  So many people had no idea and the few that did were sworn to secrecy! I chose August 15th as my reveal date because that is my grandmother's birthday and I thought it was symbolic of 1117.  
So began to have a little fun with it- On July 27th I posted this on Facebook:

I am going to have some pretty exciting news on August 15th!! I can't wait to share it- and no I'm not pregnant or getting married  And those of you who know.... keep your trap closed!!  #18days

And the fun began!  All of the speculation from friends and family!! Some more clues followed: 

And I'm not telling anyone until the 15th!!! You are not going to get it out of me so don't try!! It's has nothing to do with the following: Gavin Degraw, Halstead, my house, my job or my girls.  #thisisgoingtobefun

Big news update- 1 person has guessed correctly and she has been sworn to secrecy. #16days

#15days until my big announcement- I think in preparation I will watch the sunset tonight! (oh was that a hint? Maybe, maybe not!)

Hey this might work as today's #14days clue? Perhaps!! 

I had so much fun fielding the questions and possibilities!  Everyone seemed so clueless at to what it could be!  Finally on August 10th I uploaded my revised manuscript to Amazon.  It took about 24 hours for it to go live.  When I searched for Double Sunset on Amazon and saw my book and my name I cried, I was so happy!  I immediately went to Facebook for the big reveal (4 days early)

IT'S TIME!!! I am not going to make anyone wait any longer! Today is the day that I announce that I am now a published indie author!! I wrote a fiction book and have published it on Amazon Kindle! Follow the link to the book's Facebook page, like the page and share it with your friends. The link for the download is in the "about" section. This has been a long journey for me and I am so happy to share it with you all!! Special thanks to Amy Smith Bittnerfor editing and Sandy Grim Rossi for the wonderful cover art! Here we go!!https://www.facebook.com/pages/Double-Sunset/199854833508937

To say that I was blown away by the response is an understatement!  This time in my life was the most thrilling, awkward, exciting and humbling experience I had ever gone through! I am blown away but the support of my friends and family and above all the support of Ava, Jack, Katherine and John who live in my soul!!

This journey has been one I will never forget, one that has helped to define me as a person and most importantly one that has given me my life and my happiness back after so many difficult years!  I am forever grateful for Rudyard Lake, Ava Banks, Jack Hollings, Katherine Adkins and John Cooper! 

Next time- What happens AFTER you publish a book to Kindle? Finding a place to publish paperback copies of course!