Volume XXV, Issue Three | December 2024
I don’t remember where I got the idea for Tough Luck. I don’t remember when I wrote it. I don’t even remember why I put it aside and forgot about it.
A year or two ago, my agent’s assistant came across the manuscript. She read it and loved it and asked my agent why nothing had been done with it. My agent, Danielle, reread it and loved it and couldn’t remember why it had slipped through the cracks.
So she called me. And as I say, I couldn’t remember either. As near as we can recall, the manuscript had some problems. I think Danielle and I must have chatted about ideas then, and she suggested I write a Christmas quilt book. So I went on to write A Quilt for Christmas and forgot about the other manuscript. A Quilt for Christmas came out in 2014, so we’re talking about at least a dozen years.
Danielle sent back the manuscript (I couldn’t find it on my computer), I edited it, and St. Martin’s bought it. Easy-peasy. As Joanne Greenburg, author of I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, told me, “Sometimes you get a freebie.”
Rereading something that old was like reading somebody else’s book. I found myself thinking, Oh, this is poorly worded, or Why not have the character do this? More often, I found myself thinking, I Like This Story. Of course, that may have been ego, or maybe I just have poor taste. But it was fun rereading the story and wondering how it would end, because I had forgotten the ending.
The title was a challenge. I’d titled it Finding Pa. I thought that was a pretty good title, but nobody else did. I had no idea for another title. I laid the problem on my daughter Dana when I was visiting in New Orleans. Povy, my other daughter, creates these funny Christmas cards, then asks Dana for help with the punchlines, and Dana always comes through. Dana and I were talking over title ideas as we walked along New Orleans rough streets. She explained she’d had to put gravel in front of her house to keep cars from sinking into the mud after storms. So she came up with The Road Less Gravelled. Then out of nowhere, one of us came up with Tough Luck. So that’s where titles come from.
My novels lately have become more and more serious, with a lot of death. Tough Luck is lighter-hearted. Haidie and her brother Boots are placed in an orphanage after their mother dies. Haidie insists they are not orphans, because their father is out west someplace hunting for a gold mine, although they haven’t heard from him in years. The two escape the orphanage and head west, Haidie dressed as a boy. They have a series of adventures and meet a variety of characters, all of which Haidie relates in her unique way of talking. After they reach Denver and discover what has happened to their father, they set up an elaborate con game, employing the help of the characters they met on the Overland Trail. The story’s been compared to—ahem—both True Grit and “The Sting” and not just by me. As I say, it’s lighter than my other books, and more fun, and I hope you enjoy it.
Publication Date for Tough Luck is April 27. I’ll tell more about the book in my next newsletter.
So You Want To Be A Writer?
And a rich writer. Tough luck, as Haidie might say. My writer friend Jane Kirkpatrick (who’s sold thousands of books) included some statistics from BookBub in a recent newsletter: The average book sells 500 copies. Over 90 pct. of books sell fewer than 1,000 copies.
Figure it out. Most hardbacks sell for $25 or $30 these days, paperbacks for much less. Royalty arrangements range from about 7.5 pct. to 10 or 12 pct. and much higher if you’re an A-list author. So let’s say you have a 10 pct. royalty agreement with your publisher and are fortunate enough to sell 1,000 copies at $25 each. That’s $2,500, minus your agent’s fee (if you have an agent), and you cover your own costs. Better keep the day job.
Jane also wrote that 57 pct. of books sell because of their covers. I’ll tell you the story of Tough Luck’s cover later.
My Favorite Young Reader
Earlier this year, Gayle Gresham, president of Women Writing the West, sent me a picture of her granddaughter, Ansley, sitting on sacks of feed in a barn, reading one of my books. I was so delighted that I sent Ainsley another midgrade book. Gayle read Ansley’s thank you letter at the WWW conference in October. Pictured are Gayle and me with Ansley’s note. By the way, if you’re interested in becoming a writer, I urge you to join WWW. It’s made up of friendly and supportive writers, and the annual conferences bring in editors and agents.
Sandra’s Picks
The Paranormal Ranger
By Stanley Milford Jr.
William Morrow
I always thought only nutjobs saw Bigfoot or little gray men. The Paranormal Ranger convinced me that maybe there’s something to those sightings.
Author Stanley Milford Jr., a half-Navajo/half-Cherokee member of the Navajo Rangers for over 20 years, was assigned to look into paranormal activity on the Navajo reservation. There had been numerous sightings of Bigfoot and other alien activity. If Milford was a little skeptical, he soon realized there were just too many reported sightings. A woman showed him footage from a security camera of a huge hairy animal with a gorilla-like face. She wasn’t the only one who sighted Bigfoot. And there were huge human-like footprints and even non-human hair caught in a fence. DNA couldn’t identify the animal. Milford himself eventually caught sight of the creature.
Then there were the space-ship aliens. Many Navajos never revealed they saw the gray men for fear of being called crazy. But they trusted the ranger and told him about their encounters with aliens. Milford encountered one, too. He awakened one night to find he was unable to move so much as a hand. One of the creatures was standing at the foot of his bed.
Milford believes the world has different dimensions that sometimes intersect and that there are places where paranormal activity is strong. The Navajo Reservation is one. So is Flagstaff, Ariz.
I’ve never seen any of the creatures Milford writes about, but I’m no longer convinced they’re not out there.