Tara’s Blog

My Kids Won’t Be Posing With Mitt

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:17:30 -0400

When I need a moment to clear my head during a work day, I often pick out one of my own journals and open it to a random page. Today, I fell upon this entry that I wrote while watching Obama’s inauguration almost four years ago:

Jan 20, 2009 – It’s an important day in history. I can’t help but watch all of the goings on – from Michelle Obama’s fascinating yellow dress and green shoes, to the bumbling oath, and the prayer with the comedic ending of hope for the day when the browns will be able to stick around and the yellows will mellow. I couldn’t help but notice a woman in the background at the Mall picking up garbage as the Obama camp left. It’s true, it was an amazing speech, but how dare they walk away on such a high while leaving their garbage behind?

This got me thinking about what a memorable day it was when Obama was inaugurated. Joey wasn’t in school yet, and I remember him sitting around with me playing happily for hours as I stared at the TV. Even though we’re Canadian, we get all wrapped up in American politics. We watch the debates and swear at the polls. We wonder how many binders full of women will vote for a man called Mitt. We notice that neither of the candidates have said much about how they’ll reduce global warming. Last night we spent a few hours playing with an iPad app called Stack the States. (Think Angry Birds learn American Geography. Definitely worth the 99 cents for the full version.) It’s during weeks like these that I sometimes forget that we don’t get to vote!

Getting Closer To The Library

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:39:40 -0400

On Sunday, before heading off for the library with the kids, I grabbed a copy of my novel to drop off at a park bench somewhere along the way. The kids enjoy hearing about how I leave my novel in random places, and I thought it would be fun to let them choose a spot this time. Since I haven’t managed to get my book on the Kitchener library shelves, (They want to see more official reviews first.) I thought it would be fun to get a picture of my book getting close to the library.

The playground beside the main Kitchener branch is one of my son’s favourites because it has a fireman theme. There are pretend firetrucks, ladders, and fire poles, and lots of places to pretend you are putting out fires. One of the best things about going to the library with my kids is taking a rest at this playground. The kids always need to burn some energy off after being in a quiet place for an hour, and I love to sit nearby and browse through our new books while half-listening to their heroic efforts to save lives.

Beside the playground is a memorial for fallen Kitchener firefighters. In addition to 14 bronze memorial helmets and a large sculpture, there is a steel beam from the World Trade Center. Every time we pass the memorial, the kids ask a number of questions related to fires, firefighting, and 9/11. As we walked through the park to find a place to leave my book, we noticed that there were beautiful bouquets left in front of every helmet in the park. We all took a few guesses as to why the flowers might be there. Then the kids set “The Proper Order of Things” next to one of the helmets. At first, I wasn’t sure whether or not it was appropriate to leave my book so close to the flowers. That feeling soon passed, as I remembered that the plan was to let the children choose the spot. Besides, my book was inspired by a true life fire. It somehow seemed fitting to leave my book for the next person who stopped by to pay respects to our local firefighters.

On our way back from the library, after our usual visit to the playground, we walked by the helmets again and the kids searched for my book. They were both wild with excitement to announce that the book was gone! My daughter, who knows nothing about the official practice of “bookcrossing,” told me that I should put a tag inside the books that I give away so that people can write to me. Though I always scribble a quick author’s note inside these giveaway copies, I couldn’t help thinking she was onto something. Maybe that special tag could ask local readers to request my book at the library? I could leave a copy in the park every time I visit. Since my book is set in this very region, and since many of the people who pass by are readers, there’s a chance a few of them would accept my request and mention my book to a local librarian.

You Haven’t Done Anything Yet

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:09:40 -0400

I’ve only told a few people that I’ve replaced Oprah with George Stroumboulopoulos. The Strombo show airs at a much more convenient time for a self-employed mom than Oprah ever did. On an average weeknight I complete my third writing shift around 11:00 pm – the perfect time to zone out and listen to an audiobook, or watch George.

As George came on a few days ago, I mentioned to a certain someone in the living room that I was going to write my bio “George style”. As I got my notebook out and began thinking of George’s signature phrasing, I heard five words that inspired this post:

“You haven’t done anything yet.”

After repeating those words to myself out loud, I quickly rhymed off a bunch of things I’ve accomplished in the past 10 years, including giving birth to two C-section babies and a novel (plus setting up a new happy home a number of times). That certain someone told me I hadn’t listened long enough to hear exactly what he said:

“You haven’t done anything yet... to be interviewed by George.”

As Sarah McLachlan’s bio splashed across the screen (“George style” ), I couldn’t help but think about all of the similarities I have with this Canadian singer who has done so much that George had to chase her down for an interview. We both moved to Vancouver after post-secondary school. We both followed our dreams, had two kids, make a living doing what we love. Heck, even our names rhyme! Sarah married a drummer, got divorced, and became a single mom, but those are few differences I’m happy to live with. Yes Sarah got noticed and became world famous, but let’s put that difference aside for a moment.

As George interviewed Sarah, I continued writing my bio (“George style”):

Tara's on her way out. Here's her bio:

Growing up in 3 different provinces, Tara never quite knew which one to call home. After graduating with an English degree and working in bars and restaurants for 10 years, Tara moved back to her birthplace of Vancouver, where she considered a career in banking. Much to her father's horror, Tara walked out of that job 6 months later and turned to teaching English.

Tara credits her mother's illness and subsequent death from leukemia as the #1 motivating factor that caused her to follow through on her dreams of becoming a novelist. In 2003, Tara and her partner (who doesn't think she has done anything yet) moved to the Okanagan to start a family. It was while doing part-time work writing textbook materials that Tara landed her current role as a material writer for EnglishClub. Tara gave birth to a daughter and a son, and eventually moved back to Ontario to be closer to her extended family.

Tara has seen big changes in recent years with both children now in school. She dumped her agent, self-published her novel, and bought some socks! She also became a social media manager, administrator, and blogger for her long-term client. It was because of these efforts that Tara was invited across the pond to speak about blogging with English learners at an international teaching conference. In recent years Tara also took on a few additional Canadian clients, including ESL-Library and Maplelea Girls. A soon to be published iPad app for kids written by Tara in collaboration with Red River Press will be available on iTunes later this year.

Please welcome to the show, Tara Benwell!

It's fun to dream and make fun of husbands, but in all seriousness, this little exercise reminded me of a talk by ELT author Ken Wilson at the international conference I mentioned in my bio. Ken suggested that English language textbooks focus too much on famous people. He felt that English learners would likely welcome lesson plans on everyday people like the girl who lost her arm in a shark attack. (She’s famous now. They even made a movie about her.) When you look at how reality shows now have celebrities as hosts and everyday people as stars, I think Ken has a point. Just think about Karen Klein!

So what do you think, @strombo? Will you have me on your show? I may not be famous, but I'm Canadian, and I’m not finished yet.

On a final note, George always asks his guests, “Is there someone you wish you could say sorry to?” Before I hit publish, I wish to say sorry to the certain someone mentioned in this post who probably regrets hooking up with a writer who has nothing better to do after a day of work than write another blog post.

“Writers will happen in the best of families.” ~Rita Mae Brown

Help an Author: Write a Book Review

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:28:46 -0400

I received a nice note on Facebook today from a reader who called himself a “big fan” of “The Proper Order of Things”. He asked when the next book was coming out, and encouraged me to keep writing. I thanked the kind reader and gave him an update on what I’ve been writing these days. What I should have done was thank him and ask him to write an Amazon review. I thought of it briefly, but I chickened out.

It’s hard to ask my readers to log in to a site, remember a password, and gather a few thoughts for a book review. After all, they’ve already taken a chance on a first-time novelist, and made time to share some private feedback. But, according to many books, articles, and blog posts on the subject, reviews are the main reason people take the extra step to buy a book. I need to get some more reviews.

I have some lovely cousins in BC who have been very supportive of my dream and publishing journey. One of them recently joined Facebook and left a sweet message for me telling me how pleased she was with the end of my novel. I was so proud of her because her response contained a “spoiler” and she knew to send it to me in a private message rather than a wall post.

Though I have only done it a handful of times, I asked my enthusiastic cousin if she would be willing to write a review for me on Amazon. I have nothing against friends and family members writing reviews for self-published writers, as long as they have genuinely enjoyed the book and have an opinion about it. We self-published writers have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is typically our friends, colleagues, and family members.

My cousin quickly agreed to write a review (as so many have offered), and then asked how to go about it. This quick tutorial is for you, Linda. Thank you to a couple of readers who have already taken the time to write reviews for me on the Canadian, American, and UK site (wish these showed up in one place!). I truly, truly appreciate each and every review.

How to Write an Amazon Review
Note: If you have purchased a book on Amazon, you will have an Amazon account name and password, and will be able to write a “verified purchase review”. Sign in to Amazon before you write the review. If you forget your password, type in your email address. Amazon will send you the password.

1. Go to www.amazon.com
2. Search for the book you want to review. Here’s mine if you’re Canadian. Here’s mine if you bought it on the American site. Here’s mine if you bought it on the UK site.
3. Click on the title.
4. Scroll down to Customer Reviews.
5. Click on Write a Customer Review.
6. Give the book a star rating (1-5)
7. Enter a title for your review (Example: An interesting read, Enjoyable Characters, An impressive debut)
8. Type your short review into the text field. If you want to compare the book to another book you can click on “Insert a Product link” and share that book. For example, here are some books my readers have told me are comparable to “The Proper Order of Things”. It would be great if I could get this info in a Review on Amazon. I think we all like reading books that remind us of other books we’ve enjoyed.
9. Post your review.

If you do not want to write the review on Amazon, you can send it to me and I’ll post it on my “What Readers are Saying” page. I’ve been giving away lots of books (I always leave them in hotel rooms, and I recently left one in Central Park). I’ve also given away some to family and friends. If you receive a free copy of a book from an author and you enjoyed it enough to write a review, you could always buy the eBook version (usually 5 bucks or less) and share it with a friend. Then you’ll have permission to write a verified review because Amazon will register you as someone who owns the product. (You have to wait 48 hours. This prevents authors from getting a bunch of illegitimate reviews.)

Other ways to review a book and help out an author
• Share a link to the book on your Facebook page with a brief review in the text field of your status update. (Thank you to so many of my friends and readers who have done this!)
• Write a blog post that mentions it. (Thank you Brad, Ken, Ana, Jeremy, and any other blogger pals who have done this!)
• Tell your friends it’s a book worth reading.
• Tweet about it. (Authors can take screenshots and share these reviews on their blogs.) The twitter tag I use is #properorder. If you’re enjoying a good book, you can also write a tweet with the link #amreading that includes a link to the product page.

“The Proper Order of Things” is now available in the iBookstore and on Lulu (in various eBook formats), so there are other ways of reviewing my book as well.

There, I did it. I asked for reviews. That wasn’t so hard.

Nik Wallenda: The Greatest Show in Niagara

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 23:34:41 -0400

It suddenly occurred to me while watching the news last night that I should be heading down to Niagara Falls to pass some copies of my novel out to the massive crowds. Circus lovers far and wide will be gathering around the Falls today to watch Nik Wallenda walk across the misty gorge on a tightrope. It’s not often that you get so many members of your target audience all in the same place. Nik isn’t crossing until night time, and there will likely be hundreds of people camping out in the best spots with nothing to do but stare at the wire and wait. I still believe that the one thing preventing most people from reading these days is time.

A few of my readers have remarked that “The Proper Order of Things” had little to do with the circus even though the book’s description says that it was inspired by a real life circus fire. While it’s true that Caroline’s family does not run away and join the circus, they do spend their lives running away from it.

The Flying Wallendas are only mentioned a few times in my book, such as when Caroline talks to a neighbour about how sad it is that Karl Wallenda (Nik’s great-grandfather) died. She tells Chester’s mom that Karl was like her mother’s “Big Bird”.

My husband was surprised when he saw on the news how large the Wallenda family had grown. “Didn’t all the Wallendas die in that fire? That’s what your book is about, right?” No and no. (He still hasn’t read it.) In fact, none of the Wallendas burned in the Hartford circus fire. They weren’t the ones sitting in chairs.

An excerpt from The Proper Order of Things
We didn't use chairs inside Maple Manor. We had a table that
stretched across half of the main floor where Mother set out the
meals every morning and night, at a quarter to seven. Dad told
Chester that chairs were too dangerous with so many of us piddling
around. There were lots of other things we could sit on—pillows,
book boxes, or laundry baskets. The circle stool with the stuffing
falling out. Other than the tree stump chairs that were scattered
throughout the backyard and rooted to the ground, the circle stool
was as close to a chair as Dad permitted. When Mother wasn't using
it, Neil took charge of it. He would turn it on its side and roll it
out to the centre of the living room, kicking it over, and snapping
the belt from his housecoat to call a meeting.

If you watch Nik Wallenda live on the Wallenda Cam or on TV, I hope he inspires you to take a few brave steps towards your own dreams.

The Proper Order of Things: What Readers are Saying.
Available in print or eBook on Amazon. Also available in the iBookstore.