I’ve mentioned my dad on here before. He read my book. My father’s not exactly a romance kind of guy, but he read my book and told me he liked it. That means a lot to me. (Love you, Daddy!) Actually, a surprising number of dads have read SECRETS OF THE LOTUS and liked it. My friend A.J. has two gorgeous kids and told me liked SECRETS. My friend Jennifer’s dad won one of the Kindles I gave away and he let me know he enjoyed my book, too. My own husband, one of the absolute best dads I know, who has never ever read a romance before, gave me a glowing review of SECRETS.

I won’t actually say you should give the dad in your life a copy of SECRETS OF THE LOTUS or any other romance for father’s day, but hey, it’s good to know there are a few men out there who appreciate a good romance, huh?

Happy father’s day, Dads!

Now for the bonus. I finished another manuscript. Yep, just started shopping THE SIXTH FOLD (formerly ALWAYS FAITHFUL) around and now I’ve finished DUCKS IN A ROW. Well, first draft, anyway. It’s in no way ready for anyone else to even look at, but the whole story is there. And if I can finish copy editing it, I might even be able to pitch it at the Romance Writers Association Annual Meeting!

What a bonus — for me, anyway!

“It has never been easier to publish that book you always said you’d write. The hard part is finding an audience for it.” –Molly Gaudry, The Lit Pub, interviewed in Luna Park Review

It’s a fascinating interview and I encourage you to read it, but those two sentences stood out to me as an essential truth. The last statement gets to the heart of every published writer’s struggle, but especially those of us who are decidedly unfamous. I mean, if you’re a good writer, you can be published. But just because you’re published doesn’t mean you’re going to sell your book. (Trust me.) So how do we overcome it?

An obvious answer would be to look at today’s most successful authors and trace their careers backward. What happened when J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book came out? How did Stephen King market Carrie? I saw a movie trailer for Nicholas Sparks’s The Notebook the other day and I wondered, what sets these stories apart? What helps them reach our hearts and somehow set them apart from the rest? Nicholas Sparks himself said in a speech at a writers conference I attended that “Quality rises to the top.” That sentence stuck in my mind. Yes, I thought, and I write quality stories, so it’ll happen for me…someday.

So surely if you look at how the most successful novels of the day were marketed, you’ll be able to figure the trick, right? Trace it to the root and you’ll know the secret, the only ad campaign you’ll ever need. But it’s really not that easy. And I can only think of one reason why.

Sometimes magic happens. Sometimes a story captures our imaginations in such a way that we can’t just let go of it. We have to share it. We have to tell other people about it. It happened that way for me the first time I saw Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. I made my poor husband take me to see that movie no less than three times in the theater, and this was at a point in our lives when we didn’t have a whole lot of money to go to movies. And no, the magic didn’t just come from Johnny Depp in a sexy pirate suit (although that didn’t hurt). It was the whole story and feel of the movie. Like it could take me into another world and change me into something more special. I couldn’t stop talking about it, and it turned out I wasn’t the only one.

That’s magic.

J.K. Rowling wrote seven books absolutely filled with that magic. Stephen King, Alice Hoffman, Nicholas Sparks, Stephenie Meyer have all conjured it. Quality may eventually rise to the top, but magic is what sends it shooting, foaming over the rim of the glass. So how do I get it?

I’ve only come up with one answer. Keep plugging away. Keep writing, and write what I love to write. One of these days, maybe somebody will read one of my books and find themselves so lost in it they can’t stop talking about it. Maybe they’ll tell their friends and maybe across the nation, somebody else will do the same. Maybe a lot of somebodies will find it in themselves to take that leap of faith and pick up one of my books, become lost in my world for a while.

One last note. Next month’s HONEOWP charity is the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Because I want to.

It has been just such a day in the world of Michelle Garren Flye’s literary ambitions. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “silence is deafening.” I can’t hear a damn thing when it comes to my writing.

Most days I soar on wings of expectation. SECRETS OF THE LOTUS is my first novel. I know it’s good. Who cares if it’s only sold a few copies and the three AMAZON reviews, while favorable, are easily recognizable as people I know (and I love all three of you!)? It’s a tough market. I’ll break through. Maybe with my next one, WINTER SOLSTICE, slated to be published by Lyrical Press, Inc. in August 2011.

If not that one, surely ALWAYS FAITHFUL (working title) will do it. I’ve already sent this one out to agents. The story of this one is significantly meatier (meaning there’s more to it, more to sink your teeth into) than either SECRETS or SOLSTICE. You might even go so far as to call this one Chick Lit instead of just Romance. And what have I heard from the agents I’ve queried?

……………….. (crickets chirping) ……………………..

And yet, in spite of all this, I can’t help but hope. I believe in my books. I believe in my writing. I believe I’m writing what I’m meant to write (sex scenes and all!).

To top it all off, I’m reading a perfectly marvelous book. MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND by Helen Simonson. Now, I know I’ve been known to plug authors I know on here (although never undeservedly). I don’t know Ms. Simonson, but I’m adding her to my favorite writers, a list which includes Alice Hoffman and Barbara Kingsolver, among others. Understand that these are not just writers I like or even love. These are writers who write the way I will always strive to, though I have no real anticipation of getting there. Surprisingly — maybe — most of the authors on this list are female. And I don’t know any of them.

I’m not really sure why reading such excellent writing from somebody else should give me such hope. Turns out MAJOR PETTIGREW’S is Simonson’s first novel. Shouldn’t I be jealous that she achieved so much with her first novel when mine has sold just a handful of copies?

Nah. I think I can compare this joy of reading something truly wonderful somehow to the Major’s rediscovery of how to “enjoy listening” (page 103). The Major claims his ears became numb listening to students read in a monotone. I become somewhat the same reading books that are “good” (like my own). Good is fine, good is great, but it’s not inspirational unless we strive to achieve more. My thanks to Helen Simonson for reintroducing me to the joy of reading, waking my numb reader’s ears and giving me hope.