Books and More...

 Before 'Slime' was finished I had 'Sleuths' in my head.  I actually began writing it before 'Slime' was on the market.  My writing gurus assured me that the second book would help sales of the first book and I loved where the story was going and wanted to keep the story going.

That it helped sales for a time was true. However, I ran up against a brick wall with marketing efforts for both books because I hadn't figured the high cost into my budget. Some things you lean the hard way.  When folks were asking for $100 to review my book, I balked.  I did double down on social media, saturating Facebook and Instagram with Slobbers and his books.  I also set up a store on Etsy to sell Slobbers branded products but ran into some brick walls there, too.  I'll explain that aspect as we go along.

Shortly before 'Sleuths' was released I happened across a very popular Saint site on Facebook because the administrator of that site began sharing more and more of my posts on her several sites.  It was a huge boon. I also had set up a page for Slobbers and a group and people were getting on board.

A little back story here before I continue.  During this time a very good friend lost her Saint.  I had grown old with her Harley because we met just before we lost Bacchus, some 12 years earlier.  When chatting about our boys we laughed that perhaps in the next book Harley could be Slobbers' dad.  After all, Slobbers' had parents and it would be interesting to tell how he happened to become a shelter dog.

Back to my Facebook friend.  During this same time frame, she, too, lost her Saint. The iconic Brenda Lee. I was stunned for I had been thinking of asking if she could be Slobbers' mom.  After allowing my friend some time to grieve, I asked her what she thought. Maybe it was fine that all the dogs had crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Slobbers, after all, was the composite of all my Saints. Fortunately for me she was thrilled with the idea.  As with Harley, Brenda Lee would live on.

I began doing little stories on social media telling Harley and Brenda Lee's story and people liked them so much they began clamoring for them to become a book of their own. I asked my publishing gurus if I should do it and if I chose to, could it be a prequel. The answer was yes.

How all that went coming up...

Banned Books Week

Parents challenging schools and books for required reading is nothing new.  It happens here quite a bit and sometimes the parental opinion is based on an online review, not the actual reading of a book.  Rather like when my generation would turn in a book report based on a Classic Comic rather than the actual book.

Never, however, did I expect to see a week designated as Banned Books Week.  But yes.  There is one and it's an annual event sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association and the PEN Center, among other similar associations.  It is designed to draw attention to banned books.  It is marketing the written word in a most unconventional manner.

If it gets people to buy books and read them I guess it isn't all bad.  It seems a shame there is a need for it but then it's a shame some feel a need to ban a book in the first place.

Over the years some of the great classics have fallen prey to zealous critics.  Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn often make the lists.  Little Red Riding Hood because  she was carrying wine as one of the refreshments in her picnic basket.

The Diary of A Young Girl  by Anne Frank because it is a real 'downer'. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz because it described witches, at least some of them, as good. From Grimm's Fairy Tales the story of Snow White because she almost gets killed by a corset and Cinderella because her step sisters cut off parts of their own feet.  Grimm indeed.

For the older set there's The Grapes of Wrath because some thought fictional residents of a real county weren't flattering. Gone With The Wind for Scarlett's immoral behavior and Fahrenheit 451 for the use of an expletive considered blasphemous.

My what starched and proper lives those who would ban books must live.  Without a touch of reality. And they wish to impose it on others not quite so saintly.

Perhaps the most ludicrous of all is the dictionary.  Yep.  Because it has all the words in it including (gasp) sexual definitions! Well, someone had to read it to know that.  My guess is that the 'definition of' is as close to sex as many have ever gotten!  I do wonder, though, how they justified having kids.

The one book I didn't find on the lists is the Bible.  Heck, it has it all of the above under one cover!  I don't imagine the booksellers would be too keen on that if the word gets out.