I’ve recently returned from what has become my top pick for an author/reader event (and that’s saying a lot because I only have three events I recommend and are on my list of MUST ATTEND events). Wild Deadwood Reads in Deadwood, SD is DaBomb! (Is that slang still even a thing?)

The weather was beautiful for horseback riding. Yes! Equine therapy, something my soul desperately needed. The weather was gorgeous for the Twisted Tour of the “haunted” places in Deadwood. Practically the whole town is on the National Register of Historic Places, so if the tour didn’t find a ghost or two or run into an unexplained cold spot, I would be surprised. I will admit, the weather turned nasty and was as cold as a well-digger’s knee for the rodeo Saturday night. Seriously—38 degrees when the first rider climbed aboard a bull and rosined up is a bit chilly. By the end of the evening, some of the puddles in the arena appeared to have an ice skim over them. I don’t know who was more chilled—the audience or the bull fighters standing ankle deep in soggy, muddy puddles. If you want a good glimpse of the backbone and soul of this wonderful country, get yourself to a rodeo.
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I saw and hugged authors I usually only see and interact with on Facebook. I met new to me authors. I met another Rose (a Wild Rose Press author). I was honored to meet a genuine, down-to-earth celebrity in Michael Foster. I met and talked to readers, some of whom I was a “new to them” author. I sold out of two books and almost sold out of a third.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear here—while I am deeply appreciative of the readers who purchase my books at these events, that isn’t why I’m there. I’m there to make connections, to begin a reading relationship with new to me readers and build upon that relationship with readers who follow me. I go to these events for networking, for building professional rapport with other authors. I have never once looked at any author/reader event in terms of ROI (return over investment).
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Has everything become about the almighty dollar?

​A comment was made on a friend’s post about this event that it seemed only authors were there having fun, there were no readers. Actually, for every author there, four readers attended. Yes, Deadwood was a lot of fun. One of the many reasons I continue to return to Wild Deadwood Reads. Authors having fun with readers and those who might become readers.
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One of the biggest pointers in making sales is to allow your potential readers to relate to you on a personal level. What better way to do that than over snacks at a “meet and greet”? Or while admiring the beauty of the Black Hills from the back of a well-trained horse? Or touring the beauty of Spearfish Canyon, a wild horse refuge, and the grandeur of Mount Rushmore with other authors and readers? Or (as was the case this year) shivering while also being impressed with the prowess of a bull rider and the brute strength of a one-ton animal determined to dislodge that annoying human clinging to his back? Or, in my case, having readers and authors come to my table to meet my dog? Seems my dog is famous—even the hotel staff remembered him from the previous year and were tickled he was returning with me this year.

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Any author who views an author/reader event merely in terms of ROI seriously needs to reconsider why they are writing.  If an event is criticized and discounted because of ROI (or perceived lack thereof), as an author, you’ve reduced your readers to potential dollar signs. Your readers aren’t even human anymore in that world view. And, the day I do that to any reader (whether that reader reads my books or not) is the day I hope someone literally Gibbs’s slaps me upside the head.
Yes, I fully understand this writing gig is a business and must be treated as such, but I also know there is such a thing as client goodwill. You can’t put a price tag on that goodwill. There is no way to adequately measure that goodwill with any metric.
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No one is a dollar sign and any author who forgets that does so at his/her peril.

​(Photos by Kim Killion of the Killion Group, Jennifer Tibbs Fuller, Jacque Bailey, and Teresa Keefer.)

There’s a brew-haha going on in the collie world. It’s a justifiable brew-haha and this one has my blood boiling and my dander is way up. (If you think drama is limited to only Romancelandia, you obviously have never had even a passing acquaintance with the world of purebred dogs and dog shows.)  I’ll keep the description of what set off this tempest as short as possible.

Today, at an all-breed dog show (all-breed is exactly what it says it is—it’s all American Kennel Club breeds can be entered and shown, unlike a specialty show which is just for one breed of dog), a judge withheld ribbons on two dogs. One of those dogs took championship points the day before. The other is a finished champion who was an award of merit winner at our recent NATIONAL specialty show. The judge withheld ribbons on these two dogs because they are not an “acceptable color.”

First of all, the collie standard does not have a disqualifying color. All colors are acceptable. PERIOD. End of the conversation. Secondly, just because this judge is known to have a personal abhorrence to this color, it in no way or manner still allows for a disqualification and notation that the color is unacceptable on the judge’s sheet. Let me repeat: THE COLLIE STANDARD DOES NOT HAVE A DISQUALIFYING COLOR. The judge IS ALLOWED to withhold ribbons for whatever reason, but that reason must be stated. By writing the color was unacceptable, the judge violated the standard written by the Collie Club of America and approved by the American Kennel Club. I would like to hope that the parent club of my breed knows better what acceptable colors in my breed are than a judge who has never owned nor bred a single collie.

What was this color this judge found so offensive as to withhold ribbons on two dogs (and BTW, totally missed another dog entered and shown who is also the same color)? Sable merle. SABLE MERLE. 

This isn’t the first time the issue of sable merles has come up with judges—both all-breed and specialty judges. If you’re in this game long enough, you learn who the judges are who will not put up a sable merle and those who think color and eye-color is the very last consideration when evaluating a dog in the ring. Unless and only unless the coloration and eye color throws the expression off, color and eye color should be a moot point. As a good friend of mine said when I was discussing this with her, the sheep don’t care what color the collie is or what color its eyes are.

CCA, are you listening to me—because I’m going to make a few suggestions to try to resolve this problem. First of all, sable merles aren’t going to go away. When we have judges deliberately undermining OUR written standard for OUR breed that the AKC has approved, it’s become an issue. It’s no longer a non-issue, or something that can simply be fixed with judge’s education.

Let’s take our standard, the official standard, and tweak it. Under color, we need to address sable merles. It’s that simple. Here’s our standard, word for word, regarding color:

Color
The four recognized colors are "Sable and White," "Tri-color," "Blue Merle" and "White." There is no preference among them. The "Sable and White" is predominantly sable (a fawn sable color of varying shades from light gold to dark mahogany) with white markings usually on the chest, neck, legs, feet and the tip of the tail. A blaze may appear on the foreface or backskull or both. The "Tri-color" is predominantly black, carrying white markings as in a "Sable and White" and has tan shadings on and about the head and legs. The "Blue Merle" is a mottled or "marbled" color predominantly blue-grey and black with white markings as in the "Sable and White" and usually has tan shadings as in the "Tri-color." The "White" is predominantly white, preferably with sable, tri-color or blue merle markings. 

A simple tweak to the above, wording it as follows will resolve this issue.

Color
The four recognized colors are "Sable and White," "Tri-color," "Merle" and "White." There is no preference among them. The "Sable and White" is predominantly sable (a fawn sable color of varying shades from light gold to dark mahogany) with white markings usually on the chest, neck, legs, feet and the tip of the tail. The "Tri-color" is predominantly black, carrying white markings as in a "Sable and White" and has tan shadings on and about the head and legs. The "Merle" is a mottled or "marbled" color and may be either sable or blue. In the case of the blue the color is predominantly blue-grey and black with white markings as in the "Sable and White" and usually has tan shadings as in the "Tri-color." In the case of the sable there may or may not be marbling in the coloration. The "White" is predominantly white, preferably with sable, tri-color or blue merle markings. In all colors, a blaze may appear on the foreface or backskull or both. 

(I moved the sentence about face blazes because it was driving me nuts. Its placement in the original wording of the standard implied only sables may have a face blaze.)

Let’s look at what OUR written standard says about eyes (because a merle can have blue in the eye).

Eyes
Because of the combination of the flat skull, the arched eyebrows, the slight stop and the rounded muzzle, the foreface must be chiseled to form a receptacle for the eyes and they are necessarily placed obliquely to give them the required forward outlook. Except for the blue merles, they are required to be matched in color. They are almond-shaped, of medium size and never properly appear to be large or prominent. The color is dark and the eye does not show a yellow ring or a sufficiently prominent haw to affect the dog's expression. The eyes have a clear, bright appearance, expressing intelligent inquisitiveness, particularly when the ears are drawn up and the dog is on the alert. In blue merles, dark brown eyes are preferable, but either or both eyes may be merle or china in color without specific penalty. A large, round, full eye seriously detracts from the desired sweet expression. Eye faults are heavily penalized.

The way to resolve the issue here is to remove ONE FREAKING WORD--BLUE.
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Unless and until the CCA addresses this issue, which has been compounded by the AKC’s latest blog post (https://akcconformationjudges.wordpress.com/2019/05/03/the-standard-is-your-standard/?fbclid=IwAR3ySyK5wZhsw-5DtlelM2ZImhOIBPvLodjNXsD37qCv8AMWu5KmsWZa0OA)—there will be more ribbons withheld merely based on color.

​Will the CCA address the issue? I’m not holding my breath.
 
 
 
 
 

I've been published with the Wild Rose Press since 2012. They published my first book The Devil's Own Desperado and have published four subsequent romance novels. Last year, I took a deep breath, and self-published two and a half books (the half book is because I co-authored a novella with another western romance author, a great writer named Abagail Eldan). 

I decided it's about time I have an author logo. I contacted the graphics artist who does my covers for the Wild Rose Press books and asked her to design a logo for me. Debbie Taylor rocks my world. She gets me, which makes working with her an utter joy. 

This is what she designed for me, and I LOVE it! 
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So, if I'm at book signings that you're attending (Wild Deadwood Reads in Deadwood, SD, Writers on the River in Peoria, IL, or Penned-Con in St. Louis, MO) look for the logo. 

​Tell me what you think. 

Can I just stand up and scream now? Pull out my hair and gnash my teeth?

I’m in a few western historical romance groups on Facebook for readers and authors. I do some giveaways in these groups because I can afford to do so. It’s a good manner to hopefully build up readership with readers where I’m a “new to them” author. Occasionally, I’ll get a private message from a reader in one of those groups. The gist of those messages is always, “I just read the description of your book “PICK ONE IT DOESN’T MATTER FOR THIS BLOG” and I’d love to read it, but that book isn’t in KU and I can’t afford to buy all the books I want to read.”
Well, tug my heart strings. I’m happy as that proverbial pig in slop this reader isn’t looking for and finding my books on a pirate site! I’ll usually write back and tell that reader I’m flattered they’re interested and if they send me their e-mail, I’ll be more than happy to send them a gift copy from Amazon. It’s worked really well, until the other day…

I had gifted a reader an e-book she said she wanted to read, after she wrote and said the book description really piqued her interest and the story line sounded great. I got a message the other day from this reader, written all in caps. The gist of the message was I am going to burn in hell for my filthy mind, how dare I send such obscenity, and why didn’t I warn the reader there were *GASP* sex scenes in this book. Reader wouldn’t have even wanted to read this book if that information had been disclosed.

I wanted to shoot a message right back, pointing out said reader never asked if there was sex in the novel. Instead, I walked away from the keyboard, brushed out a collie (or three), thought up all kinds of snarky replies which weren’t sent, and finally answered that message by saying, “I did not intend to offend you. The next time I generously offer to send a free book to someone who approaches me requesting a book of mine because they cannot afford to purchase all the books they wish to read, I’ll remember to ask if they are offended by the depiction of intimacy, vulnerability, and trust between two consenting adults.”
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Yeah…I think I lost a reader. I’m pretty sure before I sent that response, I had already lost a reader.




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