A DREAM COME TRUE: PRELIMINARY PUBLICITY

I was thrilled this morning to receive an email from my publisher with a link to a bio page for their website and another link to a page promoting my novel SHADOW OF THE LION.

https://www.prbuzz.com/books-publishing-literature/154822-introducing-w-ruth-kozak-s-epic-historical-novel-shadow-of-the-lion.html.

Alexander's Funeral Carriage

Things happen so fast!  And my dream really IS coming true. Now I am planning all the preliminary publicity I can do myself, plus what I'll do once the book is on the market next August 2014.
Already I have a list of possible sources for book readings and for sure I will ask the Hellenic Community Centre if I can do my book launch there.

Three people have already offered to write book reviews for me. One is my writer friend Dr. John (Jack) Dempsey, another is another Greek/Canadian friend who teaches at a local college, and the third is a new facebook friend introduced to me by my other writer friend Scott Oden.  I am so appreciative of all this help and advance support.

I've been sent a questionnaire to fill out where I will outline what I plan to do for my own publicity campaign and I've already got lots of ideas.  Another published writer who is having a book out around the same time mine is scheduled has asked if I'd like to do joint book readings with her. This is another huge boost as she is a well known local writer.

So for now I am sailing on a silver cloud of euphoria, hardly believing all this is happening so quickly. And I know Alexander has been right there all along. So I'm certain this will all be a huge success!

 Alexander wearing his lion helmet

Painting: Roxana and Alexander IV (Iskander) with the court secretary, Eumenes.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Mural, "Battle of Issus" Alexander the Great vs Darius, king of Persia.

 

When I first sent off my manuscript of SHADOW OF THE LION, the writer, Steven Pressfield, had some very astute advice for me.  In part, this is what he said:

 

I happened to have been talking to some fighter pilots recently and they told me one of the axioms of air-to-air combat. The most dangerous moment in a dogfight, they say, is immediately after you've shot down an enemy plane. Because in that moment, you may let your concentration lapse. And that's when someone jumps you and shoots you down.

 

I would say the same is true for writers. The dangerous moment is just after you finish a book and ship it off. My own ironclad principle is to IMMEDIATELY start another book.

 

When you're immersed in a new project, you're not as apt of obsess over the fate of the one you just finished. You don't check your mailbox or your Inbox compulsively. You resist the temptation to measure your worth and the worth of your work by the opinions of others.

 

The other thing I have found is that when you start Book #2, whether you realize it immediately or not, you are already working at a higher level than you were on Book #1. This helps too, when publishers, editors and agents (who are notoriously slow to respond, sometimes taking MONTHS) don't get back to you with the lavish praise you were so hoping to hear IMMEDIATELY.

Listen only to your own heart. Hang onto your emotions. The next weeks and months will be a trial, so be ready for it.  "Start the next one tomorrow."

 

I have carefully followed Steven's suggestions all the way through.  In fact, I actually hid away my manuscript of "Shadow" so I wouldn't obsess on it. And yes, I started that new novel. Well, actually it was the one I had started before I decided to write "Shadow" so I brought it out of the archives, dusted off my research files and started to retype it into the computer (it had been written on a manual typewriter).  So far so good. My writer's group loves it and I am having a great time renewing the research and getting to know the characters again. 'Dragons in the Sky" is a Celtic tale set in the 4th century BC with an Alexander connection told in the first person by a young Celtic girl, almost a past-life regression kind of story.

 

Meanwhile "Shadow" has been in the hands of an agent for several months.  But finally, in spite of saying how much he'd enjoyed reading it and that it was a 'wonderful' story, he decided against signing me on.  What to do next?  I knew this was the way things go with submissions so I did have a list of possible publisher to pitch it to. Immediately my mentor Scott Oden suggested I send to the assistant publisher of a publisher company he is familiar with. So I did. And that's where it is now.  And if that try fails, I'll go for another, and another.  Because what is required when you are trying to publish a book is PATIENCE and DETERMINATION. 

 

Detail from the mural: Alexander showing his determination.

 

Alexander the Great and, before him,  his father, the formidable warrior, King Philip of Macedonia, went fearlessly into battle and never had one defeat. Their bravery and determination and skill as strategists made Macedonia the ruler of the world, dominating Greece and defeating even the mighty forces of Persia who had dominated the Asian world.

I am lucky to have an army of supportive friends and admirers who are cheering me on and backing me up.  So I will keep on pursuing my dream until it is realized. I KNOW "Shadow of the Lion" is a worthy cause.  I put my whole heart into it and gave it my best.  So in the end, if I persevere, I know I'll eventually win the gold.

16-pointed Star, Emblem of the Macedonian Royalty.

 

 



THE END OF THE JOURNEY

The Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great, 323 BC

Very soon my manuscript of "Shadow of the Lion" will begin is journey out into the world.  It's been a long adventure that has taken as many years to complete as it did for Alexander to conquer the world.  He had many victories, no defeats, until death took him unexpectedly and suspiciously at the age of 33 in Babylon.  That is where my journey began, and it retraced his footsteps all the way back to Macedon ending in the year 310 BC. 

I've enjoyed the journey.  Being a travel writer as well as a writer of historical fiction, I used some of my research trips as an opportunity to write travel stories as well.  And I have written journals full of the details of these adventures.  My acknowledgements in the front of the novel will include thanks to the many people who helped me with my research including the Greeks themselves: the Greek Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Tourism (who provided me with a free ticket to Greece in 1993 to complete my research), and an interview granted at the Society of Macedonian Studies in Thessaloniki.  As well, I had help from the Finnish Institute, my friend Petra who was assistant director at the time who helped me get a museum pass,  and Margaret, a friend who worked at the British School Library who granted me permission to research in their archives.  I also got a chance to research at the Gennadius Library and had help from a great many other Classical scholars and friends in Greece who cheered me on and gave me so much encouragement.

During the long process of writing the novel I was helped by my Scribblers Writing Critique Group who did as always an expert job of helping me edit and improve the text.  Without their encouragement I may have given up on it a long time ago, expect that I had this burning need to tell the story of what happened after Alexander died.  Long ago I read Mary Renault's"Funeral Games" and always felt that it was lacking, somehow, compared to many of her other excellent novels, especially "Fire From Heaven".  I had been 'in love with' Alexander since the age of 16 and inspired to write about him.  My first Alexander themed novel was written when I was in my last year of high school and that got me started on pursuing the story of his life.  "Shadow of the Lion" is what happened to his only legal heir and all the others close to him after his death, ending with the fall of his dynasty. I was lucky to live in Greece for part of the time I was researching and able to visit all of the places there, and some in Asia Minor, where the story takes place.  The rest , Iraq (Babylon) Syria and Egypt (Alexandria) I had to rely on texts, videos and lots of research to set the stage. 

As I reach the end of the task, now polishing the synopsis, I am feeling this great sense of relief and the urge to set it free so I can move on to my next project, an half-finished novel that also has an Alexander theme, which I set aside in order to work on Shadow.  This one is a Celtic novel, told in the first person, "Dragons in the Sky".  And then I am planning to write another about Alexander's mother, Olympias. That one will be titled "The Black Dove".  

I'm not traveling to Greece this summer as I usually do because I invested my money in a professional editor who has done a magnificent job of helping me fine-tune the novel.  So now I send it on it's way I hope that a publisher will pick it up and give it the publicity it deserves.  If that fails, after a good try, I'll consider self-publishing.  I know Shadow of the Lion is an excellent novel and it is almost what you would call my 'life's work'.  So it deserves to be shown to a wide audience. 

I BELIEVE: Going for the Gold.

Me and the Olympic Cauldron


“I Believe”, the theme song of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games keeps running through my head. Imagine Canada winning gold. Believe in and imagine all that you can achieve. Just IMAGINE and BELIEVE!

It's been a thrilling week so far. I've been caught up in the festivities and sports activities going on, writing one or two stories a day for Planet Eye Traveler. And still keeping up with my six classes a week. So there hasn't been any time now to work on Shadow of the Lion. You can read some of the stories at http://www.planeteyetraveler.com/travel/north-america/vancouver > or in the special edition City Guide http://guides.planeteye.com/vancouver

I've had a lot of fun braving the merry-making hordes of people who have flooded the city. I even had the luck to go to one of the medal award ceremonies, although I haven't actually been to any of the sports events. There's lots going on for free in the city and I've tried to cover as much of it as possible (without waiting in lineups for two or three hours!)

What has impressed me is the great Olympic spirit shown in the city, the hospitality and the feeling of extreme national pride. The colours are everywhere: Red and White, O Canada sung spontaneously in the midst of cheering crowds. But it's that song "I Believe" that stirs me every time I hear it. And the other Olympic slogan “Imagine!” And I imagine my novel, Shadow, being finished and published and winning a gold. I believe it is good enough!

I've occasionally, at random, looked back at pages I had written a long time ago, and felt a stir of deep emotion and wonderment. Did I really write that? It's great! And yes, I believe that when it is all finished, it will be great! Like the athletes, I’ve been ‘training’ for this moment, when Shadow of the Lion is complete and ready to be presented to the world. Yes, writers ‘train’ like athletes, practicing, rewriting, workshopping, striving for their personal best, just like athletes, imagining that they will achieve their goals. Believing!
At the end of this week, the 2010 Winter Olympics will be over and just a memory. Then I will go back and finish my novel. And I believe it will be a success. Yes! I'm going for the gold!