Laura Spencer, Understudy, Goes on in Jubilations' "The Big Boom Theory"

Our budding actress-daughter, Laura, has been employed as "adcast" by Jubilations Dinner Theatre in Calgary for about a year now.  All of the wait staff wear costumes and appear in character during the show, and are a fun part of the entertainment.  Laura has sung a solo during a food-break in the last two shows, and became the understudy for the Amy Farrah Fowler character for the current show, "The Big Boom Theory," which opened at the end of April.

Laura worked two extra shifts last Monday and Tuesday, and was taking Thursday off to allow maintenance to install a bathroom ceiling fan in her apartment when she got a text message from the Jubilations floor manager telling her that the actress who plays Amy was quite sick, and that Laura was on standby to go on for her the next night.  On Friday morning at 10AM, Laura received a second message telling her that she was playing Amy that night, and to come to an emergency four-hour dress rehearsal at 1PM.  Laura had had no previous rehearsals for the show, but had been learning the part by observing the play while she worked.

Even though the show was sold-out, the good people at Jubilations squeezed in another table-for-two for Reid and I, and we got to see Laura perform in the Friday night show.  We were so proud of her.  She had learned all of the lines, sang a solo and duets, and was in some of the dance numbers, too.  She also had the Amy voice and mannerisms down pat. One particular moment I will always remember was when the villain, who was trying to seduce Amy, did some back flips across the stage during a musical number, and then waited for Laura to run at him full tilt and straddle-jump him!  At the end of the show, Laura stepped forward for her bow, and the other cast members formed a half-circle around her and applauded.  You could tell that Laura didn't expect them to do this and was visibly touched.

Saturday afternoon she attended a second extra rehearsal so that she could be added to the big "Ballroom Blitz" song and dance number, and Sunday she did a third rehearsal so that she could sing an extra solo during one of the meal breaks and appear in the dance combinations at the end of the show.  This was Laura's first professional show, and she was a real pro through-out her "baptism-by-fire."  Well done, Laura!

Great Article About My Books in Mount Royal University's "Face Time"

I'm delighted today about an article that appeared in Mount Royal University's electronic newsletter, "Face Time."  It was written by Angela Sengaus, and is about my writing career outside my working hours as an administrative assistant with the Department of Humanities.  It includes  book covers and links to my books on Amazon.com, and it's terrific promotion.

Heres a link to the article:  http://www.mtroyal.ca/facetime/FTdata_cathyspencer_050913.htm

A Big Move

Sometimes the dice get rolled and your whole life turns upside down.  That's just what happened to my husband and me over the past couple of months.  Budget cuts to post-secondary education from the Alberta government required Mount Royal University, where my husband is employed as a tenured associate professor and I am employed as an administrative assistant, to make some deep cuts, and they suspended the fine arts diploma program, among others.  My husband was declared redundant, since he teaches music and drama, so we have decided to return to Ontario, where Reid will have more teaching and performing opportunities.  We will probably head off the last week in July, our furniture in a truck and our Toyota in tandem, and plan to head for Hamilton.  We've never lived there before, but there's a GO Train to Toronto, and the real estate prices are at least half of what they cost in the greater Toronto area.  Reid will pick up some part-time teaching hours at a nearby college, open a private studio, and work with his agent to find performing opportunities.  The plan is for me to stay home and write, after thirty-plus years of working as a clerk/administrative assistant in the insurance and post-secondary education industries.  We hope to buy a house we can put a basement apartment into to help with the mortgage payments, so we'll be flying out to Hamilton in June to look at properties.  The next three to four months will be crazy and stressful, but exciting.

I will be able to treat my writing as a full-time career and give it the time and energy it requires to be successful.  A meeting with the Calgary IPAC group in April, where Dave Reynolds of the Calgary Chapters-Indigo bookstore chain spoke about getting your self-published books into Chapters on consignment, and new promotional ideas from my e-publisher, Books We Love, have made me realize that it will take a heck of a long time to finish my next book, Town Haunts, if I continue to write on a part-time basis.  Since the best strategy to a successful career is to keep publishing books, I'm really glad that this opportunity to pursue my dream on a full-time basis has opened before me; glad, but scared.

So, now we need to sell our house in Turner Valley, find a loving home(s) for my daughter's two cats, comb through our accumulated junk (again) and pack up, find a place to live in Ontario - oh, and finish out the next couple of months at Mount Royal.  "Easy peasy" my daughter, Kate, would say.  And say goodbye to our youngest daughter, who will be staying here in Calgary as she pursues her acting career.  We've put down roots in St. John's, Waterloo, Vancouver, and Calgary, and Laura is one root who will flourish here a while longer, until she realizes her dream to live in England, that is.

Goodbye, Alberta.  Welcome home, Ontario.

When Authors Have to Have a Thick Skin

So, probably the worst part about being an author is when someone gives you a lousy review.  Anyone can write and publish a review these days; all they have to have is a blog, no credentials required.  It doesn't matter that they didn't read your book very carefully or are misinformed; they can say whatever they like.  And it's seen as poor form for an author to respond in her own defence.  Not only does it look like sour grapes, but the author might become the target of malicious reviews as payback.  While the book-sharing platforms can be a lot of fun - people get together to recommend the books they love - they are also used by people who self-aggrandize by trashing other peoples' work.

Today The Affairs of Harriet Walters, Spinster got trashed, and that's frustrating.  Not just trashed, but major plot points were given away without so much as a "spoiler alert," and when I pointed this out to the site managers, my knuckles were rapped.  I won't direct you to the website because I don't want to promote them and because I don't want to spoil the book for people who haven't read it yet.  I am, however, very grateful every time someone who enjoys one of my books makes a special effort to leave a good review.  It is so much easier to tear things down than to build them up.

So, thanks to everyone who likes my books and passes the word along to their friends.  I'm going to hold my head up and keep on writing for a long time to come.  Cheers!

The Marriage Market Free Today and Tomorrow on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Marriage-Market-ebook/dp/B00CDXRGP4

A determined young woman in search of a husband with two best friends competing for her affections. An ambitious widow who defies social convention by going into business for herself. A rakish lawyer who falls disastrously in love for the first time. These are the central players in this old-fashioned Regency romance. The Marriage Market will sweep you from the ballrooms of the “haute ton” in Bath to a romantic vineyard in Tuscany. (Originally published as Good Intentions.)

The Marriage Market Published

Published by Books We Love on Amazon

The Marriage Market

A determined young woman in search of a husband with two best friends competing for her affections.  An ambitious widow who defies social convention by going into business for herself.  A rakish lawyer who falls disastrously in love for the first time.  These are the central players in this old-fashioned Regency romance.  The Marriage Market will sweep you from the ballrooms of the “haute ton” in Bath to a romantic vineyard in Tuscany.

Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/The-Marriage-Market-ebook/dp/B00CDXRGP4

Well, that's it.  All three of my novels are now published with Books We Love and available as e-books with Amazon.  I'd sit down tonight and put my feet up, but I'm going to the Calgary Crime Writers party to celebrate the short list for the Edgar awards for mystery novels.  If I have anything to celebrate, I'll let you know.

Cheers!

Connecting Book Series to the Same Town

I just read an interesting article that was brought to my attention by the Romance Writers of America e-newsletter I receive.  It was about author Robyn Carr and how she found success, after starting out writing historical bodice rippers, by writing a series of books that take place in a small town of 600.  Her books focus on different "alpha males" in the community and allow character to reappear in different stories.  I remember romance writer Jennifer Crusie doing the same thing with three of her books.  It's a great idea.  People get to know a character, and then they get to see him from a new angle.  Today's romantic lead can be tomorrow's protective brother, etc. . . .  Plus, it's like watching the "Andy Griffith Show," for all those who've seen the popular 1960's TV show that took place in a fictional small town in North Carolina.  The reader becomes familiar with, and hopefully likes, a cast of characters in a small town, and gets to revisit with them in other books.  That's why book series are so popular, as opposed to one-offs.  People like to spend time with characters they already love.

Here's a link to the article about Robyn Carr.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/56699-robyn-carr-growing-a-midlist-author.html