Summary

I didn’t think I would ever write another novel, but writing is a passion, and I couldn’t help myself. This morning, I just completed a new novel tentatively titled: Ashes to Ashes; Dr. Caren Rose and that Damn Abortion Scroll. This is a first draft and would require many more edits and changes before it is a finished product. But I am looking for a couple of “Beta-Readers” who would want to read it and give me their opinion. Not so much as doing me a favor, which it would be, but because they like to read interesting books. The feedback could be anything from a one line to going wild with editing, if you like.

As a serious writer, I am never looking for a token, “Oh, that’s great.” While I’m also not looking for a mean-spirited, “Your writing is crap,” kind of feedback, I am looking for an honest opinion. I don’t want to put something out there that would be an embarrassment for myself so I would much rather someone say, “That doesn’t work. It’s not believable.” I would also consider all suggestions for improvements, or for sending to the trash can.

This novel is relatively short compared to my other books, about 75,000 words. That’s about half the size of my Stones of Yemen.

If you are interested, just put in comments below with your information. I will not publish that comment but keep the information personal. I am especially looking for some women to read it, to make sure I got it right. Men are welcomed too.

About the Book

Historians will look back and see the issue of abortion and women’s reproductive health as being one of the major defining issues of our time (1980s-2024). If you think that is hyperbole, Donald Trump was elected president last night and he would never have had a spot on the political stage in 2015 if the evangelicals had not championed him as the one to end abortion. The evangelicals have carried him to his second win last night, now because they have been completely absorbed within Trumpism. Many believe that under Trump’s new term, a national abortion ban will be passed. Time will tell.

Rather than writing a non-fiction book about the history of the abortion issue (and I’m sure many others better than me have) I thought putting the topic within a novel would make it much more interesting and informative. This book still required a great deal of research over nine months.

On Writing

One of the reasons that I chose this topic is from my experience of trying to get an agent for my Stones of Yemen book. You may not know that you cannot get a book picked up by a major publisher unless you have an agent to represent your book. I approached thirty-five agents with my Stones of Yemen manuscript and not one wanted to read it. Why? Because the book didn’t seem edgy enough for them and many of the agents now say they favor books that deal with women’s issues or those of minorities (although I argued that the people of Yemen were a type of minority in the world). Oh, the other big reason was that I am a “nobody.” That’s why I chose to create a novel around this very difficult topic.

One of the first books I wrote, Butterflies in the Belfry, was accepted by one of the major publishing houses, however, they wanted to change it a bit and put it into their Academic portfolio. The problem with that was they wanted to charge around $35 per paperback copy. I (foolishly) feared that price would put it out of reach of the common trade book market, and I rejected their offer. That may have been a big mistake as one of the first questions agents have now is, “Have you had a book picked up by a traditional publishing house?”

I have published most of my books through my little independent publisher, Mount Erie Press. While you can publish a book for almost free (and that’s why 11,000 books are published every day), to publish a decent book, you need a professional editor to go over it, which cost thousands of dollars. While my Stones of Yemen did well, one time reaching # 8,000 on Amazon (out of > 10 million books), the royalty structure can never recover even a small fraction of the cost of editing. While I love writing, now that I’m retired (and building a cottage) I do not have such money lying around.

So, I have three options; 1) giving up writing, which I love, 2) getting picked up by a major publisher who will fund the editing and marketing, 3) publishing it without an editor. In the industry, it is said, those who edit their own books have a fool for an editor. I do recognize that some writers, like those with graduate degrees in English or Creative Writing, may get by with editing their own books, but not me.

Thanks for your consideration

Mike