Want A Sneak Peek?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Cari Dubiel has paid her dues. BIG TIME. She’s the Adult Learning and Information Services manager at the Twinsburg (Ohio) Public Library, and coordinates all programs, services, and collections for adults. She also  spent five years as the Library Liaison to Sisters in Crime. So we all have much to thank her for! And now, she’s written a novel of her own.

I know it’s unusual for us to do this, but before you hear from Cari, here’s a sneak peek at her book!

HOW TO REMEMBER

Lauren’s house is one of the huge ones. It may as well have been a castle, since I would never live in a place like this, with its vaulted ceilings and bathroom just for guests. She flung open the door, her eyes lit with a tempered rage as I held the cups of coffee out to her. My penance.

“Come in, come in,” she said. “The baby’s asleep.”

Baby? What baby? Did they get a dog? I thought I remembered her talking about that, the last time I’d seen her. Which was yesterday and felt like a hundred years ago.

I followed her into the dining room, where Jim sat with his Mac and a mug in front of him. Shoot. I snapped my fingers. “I forgot. Jim, I’m so sorry. I should have brought you some.”

He got up and put a skinny hand on my shoulder. I tensed, my own shoulders tight. 

Then he stepped back. “What’s up?”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know, man. I don’t even know.”

“It’s fine.” He waved a hand. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Lauren and I took seats at the dining table. I loved coming here, loved the comfort of their beautiful house and warm company. It was one of those places where I always felt safe. I was determined to ignore the oddness that poked at the edges of my consciousness. This was not the place for those feelings.

Lauren and Jim exchanged glances. “We haven’t been sure where you went,” she said finally, carefully, as if she had taken all the words she had thrown at me and wrapped them in a neat package.

“Where I went?” I looked between their concerned faces. “I went to Ethan’s last night after work, like I always do. The bar.”

An unearthly wail echoed from upstairs. Lauren groaned and put her head on the table. “Just let me sit here for one minute. All I ask for is one minute.”

Jim got up. “I’ll get her. You talk.” He climbed the stairs, his steps heavy.

I turned to my friend, peered at her. “What is going on?” I had to face it. If there was a problem here, it was mine. I took a sip of my coffee. It was getting cold, the warmth I had sought gone so fast.

Jim came back down the stairs clutching a small, squalling bundle to his chest. He handed it to Lauren, who sighed and sat back in her chair. She leaned over and grabbed a round pillow from the chair beside her, positioned it around her waist, and attached the baby to her breast. 

I watched the process, dumbfounded, and my body ached in response. “Wait. You have a baby now? When were you pregnant?” The words tumbled out of my mouth in clumsy, staggering succession.

“You missed it,” Lauren said. She reached for her own cooling coffee with one hand, the other encircling her breast as the baby gulped. “I mean, Miranda, I know you weren’t happy about it. But you didn’t have to disappear.”

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Yes. I know you want to read more of her fiction.

But first, here’s Cari. With the rest of her real-life story.

Crowdfunding a Novel

 or 

Why Did I DoThis to Myself?

It’s been a crazy journey so far, and I’d love to take you all with me. This book started when I woke up from a disorienting dream. In the dream, I’d forgotten an entire year of my life. I checked my calendars, my to-do lists, but everything was gone.

 I started to wonder how such a thing could happen, if it could happen.

In October 2017, I read THE PUNCH ESCROW by Tal M. Klein. It’s hard science fiction with heart – great characters and a story arc that explores what it really means to be human. As I read it, I kept thinking about how my book was similar. My novel is a blend of mystery and science fiction, with a hint of a love story, set in the suburbs of Ohio. Protagonist Miranda Underwood is a neuroscientist who loses a year of her memories, and computer programmer Ben Baker is the guy who helps her put it all back together, while he’s also investigating the mysterious death of his mother.

When I investigated Tal’s journey to publication, I discovered he was on Inkshares, a platform that will release a novel when it meets a certain number of copies sold. 

When I first read about it, I was ecstatic! I had just finished a five-year term as the Library Liaison to Sisters in Crime, and I knew a lot of people were excited about my book. I could sell enough copies to meet the goal – no problem!

Spoiler: I was wrong.

Right now I’m sitting at 159 copies. In the time since I started my campaign, an excerpt from the novel was chosen for the Hugh Holton Award, given by the Midwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. The book was chosen for two Inkshares Syndicates, which means that a group of Inkshares members have pooled their money to support my book. But I still have more work to do. I’m trying to meet the goal for the publisher’s Quill program before it ends.

 I have to sell 250 copies by February 9 to be eligible.

This has been a wild ride. I didn’t expect to meet so many people along the way – Inkshares has an awesome community of helpful, supportive authors. And feedback about the work has been overwhelmingly positive. I’m really excited to continue the marketing process once I know I have a product to sell!

So, what have I learned so far?

·      Selling a book is hard work. You have to be able to communicate the value of your work to your potential readers.

·      You need a good cover. Since my fabulous designer redid my cover, I’ve sold many more copies.

·      You have to send people personal messages and ask for the sale.

·      You have to swallow your pride and shout your mission from the rooftops.

And that’s what I’m doing here today – Please, tell all your friends, family, everyone you know, and ask me anything about the book!

HANK: SO exciting! And we cannot wait to her what happens.  Reds and readers, what do you think?  Will she make that Feb 9 deadline?  Check it out here!

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     Cari Dubiel is a librarian, writer, speaker, and teacher in Northeast Ohio. She is the co-host of The ABC Book Reviews Podcast and the mom of two young boys.

Read the first two chapters and pre-order here: https://www.inkshares.com/books/how-to-remember

@caridubiel

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Are you a POD person?

Hank Phillippi Ryan:  I love this photo. It's unusual because--I'm not talking. (Joke.) Anyway I'm listening to the brilliant Cari Dubiel, at the NEO-SinC  (I know, I think it's funny too, but we love them!)  "Killer Heat" event at the Beachwood Branch of the Cuyahoga Public Library in Cleveland!  (I said that all in one breath.)

It was a fabulous jam-backed day, wall to wall people, and Cari and I presented an hour just for mystery lovers. Our goal--to do our bit for discoverability. To give readers a whole wonderful list of books to read. So we chatted about some of our current faves, and why we were reading them, and also asked the audience for suggestions. It was like one big book club, and it was a real treat.  

Here's a link to the list of just SOME of the books we discussed. Can you predict why? Do you agree that they're discussable? (Do you think discussable is a word?)

Defending Jacob – William Landay
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
The 500 – Matthew Quirk

Don’t Ever Get Old – Daniel Friedman

Rage Against the Dying – Becky Masterman

Mr. Churchill’s Secretary – Susan Elia Macneal

Black Fridays – Michael Sears

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton – Elizabeth Silver

Dare Me – Megan Abbott

The Burning Air – Erin Kelly

Always Watching – Chevy Stevens

Blood Orange – Karen Keskinen

Anyway! The thing about Cari--not only is she the Assistant Manager, Adult Public Services, at Twinsburg Public Library in Twinsburg, Ohio. She has two blogs of her own: a personal blog, Walking Identity Crisis, and an official Twinsburg Public Library blog, The ABC Book Reviews: A Beth and Cari Production. 

Not THIS kind of pod person!

And she's a real pod person. Not that kind. She does a podcast. A what? Yeah, a podcast. About books! Cool, huh?  So I invited her over to chat about it!

Cari Dubiel:

Hello, fans of Jungle Red!  I’m here today to talk about my podcast, The ABC Book Reviews.  If you’re not already a podcast listener, they’re a great way to pass the time while driving, running, or washing the dishes.  Much like audiobooks, they give you something to focus on and get excited about if you’re not entirely excited about the task you’re doing. 

Why listen to our podcast?  I could start by telling you that last year, it was chosen as one of the best book podcasts out there by the Wall Street Journal Online.  But that would just be boastful of me.  Instead, I’ll talk about the appeal – why it’s worth your time.  The hosts are me (Cari Dubiel) and Beth Hatch.  We’re both librarians as well as writers, and we talk about the latest books we’re reading, and why you should read (or not read) them too.  We love mysteries, so if you’re looking for another good one, chances are we’ll talk about one or two.  But we also talk about a wide variety of genres, so if you’re looking for new reading recommendations, we’re the place to go for that, too.

Our podcasts are funny (we like to believe that, at least).  We’ve been described as “two girls chatting over a cup of coffee” or “two girls chatting in the back of the bus.”  Two girls chatting… that’s the gist of it.  It’s like you’re overhearing our conversation.  There’s a fun feeling to that, isn’t there?  I always want to join people’s conversations when I’m in public.  I realize that probably makes me creepy, but especially if they’re talking about books, I want to know what they think.

We also go on tangents.  We’re both moms, so we talk a lot about parenting.  We’re writers, so we spend a lot of time deconstructing books, figuring out why we like or don’t like them.  Beth is really into the paleo diet and exercise.  So I guarantee that you’ll take away a long list of reads from every show, but you may also learn something completely off the wall, like how to get a baby to go to sleep (I’m still not sure exactly how that works) or the trials and tribulations of living with a vinyl hoarder (that would be my husband).  We don’t censor ourselves, either, so you may hear some interesting stories about weird things that happen in the library.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

HANK: Wait. Wait. I have LOTS of questions.

Like: What is a podcast?  How does it even work? Why are they called podcasts?

Cari: Podcasts are audio files that live online.  They're called podcasts because most of them were designed to be downloaded to iPods.  They are kind of like mini radio shows.  There are lots of different formats for them - sometimes it's just a person talking into a microphone - sometimes it's cohosts (like us) - sometimes it's a whole panel.  Most people download them from iTunes onto an iPod or iPhone, but you can also listen to them on the web or on a phone or MP3 player that's not an Apple brand.

HANK: Whose idea was this--and how did you pick the title?

CARI: My old boss at the library had purchased the recording equipment with the intent to do a "library podcast."  He thought people would be interested in listening to a podcast about library news and events.  Well, we found that in the town we serve, the audience was very narrow.  Podcasts appeal to a niche group: people who commute, exercise, travel, knit, etc.  They want something to listen to to pass the time.  So in order to get a broader audience, we needed to expand the topic past Twinsburg.  We thought it would be fun to sit around and talk about books, so we decided to try it and see what happened.  Beth came up with the title since our names started with B and C.  

HANK: Were you frightened the first time?

CARI: Not at all.  I was a DJ on my college radio station, so I was used to being on the microphone, and we didn't really think anyone would ever listen to it.  Now I know better.

HANK: How do you decide what to talk about? Where do you record them?

CARI: We generally have a rough idea when we start, but go on a lot of tangents. We do a lot of "what are you reading" podcasts because people love to get new ideas for books to read, and they want to hear personal recommendations.  Occasionally we will see a news article and want to talk about it, or we'll be reading a bunch of books on a certain topic and want to highlight it (say, funny books, or mysteries).  We usually record either at my library or at Beth's, but occasionally we will record on Skype if we don't have time to get together.  Beth used to work with me at Twinsburg, but she got another job, so we see each other less.

HANK: Do things always go the way you planned? Do you edit or change them? How often is there a new one? HOw would people know?

CARI: We do edit out the "ums" and if we end up going on a tangent that might offend people, we edit that out too.  We can't swear or say anything that would make the library look bad.  But other than that, they're pretty much straight from the mic.  We try to update twice a month, but sometimes it's harder since we're at different libraries now.  We update our blog, Facebook, and Goodreads when we have a new podcast, or you can subscribe to our iTunes feed if you are a regular podcast listener.  There is also an archive of 100+ episodes.  We have had people talk about how they "binge listen" and go back and hear everything we did!

HANK: How has it changed your life, doing these?

CARI: Now there are a bunch of people around the world who know who we are and that we love books.  They've read books because of us, and their lives (I hope) have been changed by their enjoyment of those books and of the podcast.  I also hope they love libraries just a little more, too.  

HANK: That is so exciting! And works so perfectly.   So--do you all listen to podcasts? I have to admit it's a new experience for me...do you have a favorite one? I'm off to binge-listen to Cari....and hey, I'll give a collection of books to one lucky commenter! Because reading is what it's all about.

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How do you find Beth and Cari?
Cari says:

Find us on iTunes, subscribe in an RSS reader, follow  on Facebook or Goodreads – there are plenty of ways to join the conversation.  Thanks to the fabulous Hank Phillippi Ryan for the opportunity to share my podcast with you.  Happy listening!