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Nadine Feldman, Author

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publishing

The Path to Wonder

February 1, 2010 by admin

The backyard calls to me. My blueberry bushes are starting to wake up, with tender new leaves starting to unfurl and reveal themselves. The proud pomegranate displays its many tiny leaves like it is bragging. A precocious lemon tree requires my persistence so that it doesn’t produce fruit too soon. I wait, impatiently at times, to see what the grapevines are starting to do. And now I have a pile of concrete half-blocks to create a raised bed where the vegetables will grow. Wednesday, the new soil arrives so I have something better to plant in besides the stubborn Texas gumbo. I am a novice gardener, taking a class through Urban Harvest, but I have always known that I love digging in the dirt…and I love creating. I am delighted every day as I get to know my plants, and from them, myself.

For many years I talked a lot about life, but didn’t do a whole lot of living it. I thought I would write a book someday, but I somehow never found the time until a long illness taught me how precious and fragile dreams are by taking from me, for a time, a God-given ability. Now, two books are out, a third one is finished and ready to query a publisher, and a fourth one, which I will publish for free online, is close to completion. My writing dreams, as well as many other more personal dreams, are coming true. What has been the difference?

One thing I know for sure: following my dreams has been scary. Each creation has brought up inner fears and doubts. I think that’s why many of us spend so many years just talking about them, and making excuses for why we don’t git ‘er done. When push comes to shove, it’s not lack of time or money that stops us–it’s fear. I haven’t yet found a project that didn’t scare me at some level, but as I study the lives of other authors, I have discovered that this is pretty normal. The difference is that fear becomes a reason to do something, not an excuse not to do it. Fear becomes excitement, because it is my signpost that I am on to something interesting. I am an explorer. The work of creation becomes its own reward, and the completed project, while rewarding, more of a byproduct.

I spent the last month focusing on a move, hence the wonderful back yard with new life developing. Now, settled in, I’m ready to work again. Ready to write more. Ready to finalize a few projects. Ready to query that novel. Ready to work, ready to be scared, ready for wonder.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, creativity, memoir, nadine feldman, nadine galinsky, novels, patchwork and ornament book, publishing, self-publishing, writing

Sharing Our Stories: An Approach to Patchwork & Ornament

January 4, 2010 by admin

Although Patchwork & Ornament will be released officially at the beginning of March, I’ve shared some advance copies with people. Almost everyone who touches it expresses similar sentiments: “Here was a woman with plenty of struggles, who had the right to be bitter, but yet found her passion and created beauty anyway.”

This is the story of Patchwork & Ornament. Here was an ordinary woman, someone who achieved a certain level of recognition in her field, though not at the level she wanted, working through the challenges of her life through art and, as we discovered after her death, a substantial amount of writing. As people read her story, they often find within Jenny Feldman’s words their own stories, their own struggles, their own triumphs. I am so pleased to see this happening over and over. One of the reasons I chose to share Jenny’s work publicly was to get people thinking about their own stories, and maybe even to write them down.

As we enter 2010, I hope that some of you writers out there get busy telling your stories. The time for shyness and timidity is past. We need to know, in both fact and fiction, what you have to say, how you feel about life, what matters to you. I agree to do the same. I’m going to share Patchwork with as many people as possible; work on finding an agent/publisher for Blood and Loam; finish and load Exodus to offer free online; and start a new novel, as yet untitled. I’m learning, more and more, to value what I have to say…and to value what you have to say as well. I’m looking forward in 2010 to learn more about the work of others who, like me, travel an independent writing path.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Blood and Loam, books, independent publishing, jeanette feldman, jenny feldman, memoir, nadine feldman, nadine galinsky, novelist, novels, patchwork and ornament book, publishing, self-publishing, writing

Thoughts on Self-Publishing

November 3, 2009 by admin

Back from vacation, I’m trying to figure out where I left off with my various projects. Exodus is ready for fresh eyes, as is Blood and Loam. There’s also the updated version of When a Grandchild Dies. I also explored a few new ideas while I was gone, and one of those is ready for some good ol’ uncensored creative writing.

Most exciting, though, is that Patchwork and Ornament, Jeanette Feldman’s memoir, is on its way. As with When a Grandchild Dies, I am both excited and nervous. Part of me says, “What was I thinking?” Initially, P&O was meant purely for family, as a way to preserve my mother-in-law’s writings and art in book form for future generations. Still, I couldn’t let go of the nagging thought that others outside the family might find it interesting as well. When I handed the manuscript over to others, expecting a quick, cursory “that’s nice,” I found that readers didn’t want to put it down. Still, as the books make their way from Canada to Houston, I know that the real work has just begun.

As I go forth to market this book, I am aware of strikes against it. We all know that self-published works tend to be dismissed as being of poor quality, especially now when anyone and everyone can put a book out there.

Here’s the thing, though. As part of my research into this market, I read some of those self-published works. One in particular grabbed my attention. The author didn’t bother to get the book edited, and it was filled with typos and other errors. It had a plain cover, just a single color with an uninteresting title. Yet when I read it, I found it a compelling read, and I let go of my editorial eye as the story swept me away.

Maybe I part company with some of my writer friends, but I believe that the one prerequisite for putting a book out is to believe in it. I learned that from When a Grandchild Dies. Bookstores didn’t want me to come in to hold signings because “it might depress our customers.” Bereavement organizations aimed primarily at parents didn’t want me speaking, because the parent/grandparent relationship can be rocky. Even at a conference for bereavement professionals, one therapist told me, “I saw the subject of your book and almost didn’t come over to talk to you because I’m a grandparent, and I can’t imagine anything more devastating.”

In other words, getting the word out to my audience, the bereaved grandparents, wasn’t easy. I had to work hard and persist to find speaking opportunities and ways to find the people who needed the book. Yet I did so, and WGD has done well.

WGD is a self-published book. Ten years later, as I work on updating it, I know I’m a much better writer than I was then. Although I’m still pleased with the book overall, some areas need substantial improvement. Yet I have received enough letters from people who read the book to know that my efforts are appreciated. Had I waited for a traditional publisher, I might still be waiting yet today, and those grandparents and other family members who benefited from WGD would not have received the help they needed.

I agree that writers should take care that their book is of high quality by utilizing editors, cover designers, etc. We should try to elevate our work to its highest and best potential. However, we should not hold back our ideas because they might not sell, or maybe they’re not “good enough” somehow. One never really knows what’s going to sell anyway! Also, although I am pleased with WGD’s sales, that has never been my measure of success with the book. The lessons I learned, the growth I achieved, and the knowledge that I helped people in the process is what matters most to me.

Patchwork and Ornament is a different kind of book. It doesn’t have the specific niche that WGD has. That will make it both easier and harder to market. That said, I have done my best with P&O to make it beautiful, and I will do my best to find its audience. That’s the best that any of us can do–and it is what we must do, whether or not there are naysayers.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, creativity, independent publishing, jeanette feldman, jenny feldman, memoir, nadine feldman, nadine galinsky, patchwork and ornament book, publishing, self-publishing, writing, writing business

Return of the Muse

September 21, 2009 by admin

Getting back into a creative thinking mode after wearing my “business” cap for a while, as I’ve already written, hasn’t been easy. I have gone forward knowing that the well runs dry from time to time, and eventually the juices flow once again. Sometimes we plod along for days, weeks, or months, doing creative exercises and writing wooden, boring prose, waiting, sometimes patiently but more often not for the muse to show her face.

Of course, sometimes when we look back during those plodding moments, we realize that we did some of our best work, or at least created the foundation for it. When we write for a period of time, we know that our relationship to our work is much like our relationships with our spouses. There are times of intense romance, times of slow, steady flame, and times of just getting through–but if we hang in there, those moments of “just getting through” can deepen our commitment.

Still, I admit to loving the romance! So I’m happy to report a reappearance of the muse. And it happened in an instant.

It was Saturday, Rosh Hoshanah, the Jewish New Year. This is always a difficult day for me, because twelve years ago on RH, I learned that the child I was carrying was dying. Over the years, my grief has diminished considerably, but on Rosh Hoshanah and Mother’s Day, I give myself permission to be a complete, sobbing mess. This year was no exception.

By afternoon I was feeling better, and we decided to go to our storage unit where we keep my late mother-in-law’s art. Since Patchwork and Ornament is done, I wanted to put the piles of journals I had used as source material into storage…it’s quite a stack that has occupied my living room for the past nine months.

Within five minutes of completing our task, I felt lighter and happier. I remembered an old creative project that could be a lot of fun to finish. I started to talk to Henry about going to Sorrento, Italy, where my mother-in-law conceived her “Blossoms” art series, to develop some text to go with the 100+ drawings in the series. Ideas flowed easily, and along with them flowed a deep river of joy. We stopped for a glass of wine and a plate of cheese, and I talked nonstop about all the fun things I wanted to work on.

Working on Patchwork and Ornament, I have worked on my own grief about Jenny Feldman’s death. Perhaps in putting away the journals, I was ready to put away some of the sadness. Perhaps the tears had washed away enough pain that I could feel new again. Or maybe I just plodded along enough, keeping the faith, until the switch of creativity came on again.

Who knows?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, creativity, jeanette feldman, jenny feldman, memoir, nadine feldman, nadine galinsky, patchwork and ornament book, publishing, writing

Writing and Legacy

September 16, 2009 by admin

When Jenny Feldman died, I had no idea how quickly I would be swept up into a book project, or how involved it would be. The result, now at the printer’s, has gotten me thinking in a whole new way about family legacies. While I know others have written on the subject, I have the distinct feeling that there’s another book idea brewing. Some have suggested a companion workbook to Patchwork and Ornament that helps people get started on their own family legacies. Hmmm. I can see it, the size of the book, the style of pages, the illustrations…I’m drooling already.

When my stepdaughter Sarah saw me working diligently on her grandmother’s memoir, she said, “I guess when you die I’ll need to do this for you.”

“I hope not,” I said. Not because I haven’t enjoyed working on Patchwork. This project has brought me great joy and satisfaction. I do hope, however, that as a writer, I get everything on paper that I want to say, that I publish as many of my ideas as possible, that when I leave this earth I will have expressed all that I need to. At this point I’m not sure who my legacy is for…I don’t have grandchildren yet, so I don’t know at this point who cares. I do know this, however: Jenny Feldman didn’t think that people cared about her writings, and many people do. So it’s not my place to decide who may or may want to receive any legacy I have to give. It’s only my place to offer it, with a full heart and the best of my writing ability.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: art, books, creativity, legacy, memoir, nadine galinsky, patchwork and ornament book, publishing, writing

The Home Stretch – And the Starting Gate

September 10, 2009 by admin

The 14th is looming…this is the day I’ve selected for uploading the Patchwork and Ornament file to the printer. Until that moment, I will continue to proofread and to make sure the pdf meets their specifications. I’ve learned a lot this week about imbedding color profiles and all kinds of other things I really don’t care to know. I wake in the night thinking about a particular page or essay in the book, thinking of something else I need to change or clarify. This will go on, I’m sure, until the files are uploaded. I’ve been on this path before, and, well, this is how I roll. I will be making changes until the last minute. This is why I have to set timetables for myself, or I would never get anything done.

Nagging in the back of my brain is all the marketing tasks that are already overdue. If you’re going to write, whether or not you use a traditional publisher, you will have the number one responsibility for marketing. Daddy Publisher no longer provides this support. As a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association, I have access to some excellent resources, and I also study the work of Dan Poynter, Peter Bowerman, and John Kremer for guidance. There are endless tips on writing news releases, optimizing websites, maximizing social media, and more.

This is an odd time. On the one hand, I am about to complete a very big project. On the other, it’s really just beginning. I will take a few days to shift gears and regroup once I send the files off…then it’s off again for another run!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: books, creativity, independent publishing, jeanette feldman, jenny feldman, nadine feldman, nadine galinsky, patchwork and ornament book, publishing, self-publishing, social media

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