Patricia Sands

Author

Women

Writers and sun signs … what do you say?

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Do you believe in Astrology? Do you check your daily horoscope and then make a decision whether to get out of bed or pull the covers back over your head?

Last September my sun signs were reviewed by the lovely and talented Shaz, the resident astrologer for the fabulous collection of authors and reader/reviewers belonging to LoveAHappyEnding.com.  I did tweet this interview then and put it on Facebook but for some reason I missed sharing it on my blog … I’m sure that forgetfulness has something to do with where the moon and stars were aligned on that particular date … I’ll have to check with Shaz!

Shaz’s Stars talks to Patricia Sands

Category: Shaz’ Stars

Shaz’s Stars – Welcome to the regular feature on ‘The Buzz’ of Shaz’s Stars

Using sun sign astrology I have been interviewing loveahappyending.com Authors to see how the traits of their sun sign affect their craft.
Authors share with us how they’ve used positive characteristics as well as advice on how they’ve overcome negative ones.
I hope you enjoy getting to know our new Authors as much as I’ve enjoyed interviewing them.

Shaz

Twitter @shazjera: http://bit.ly/m4lPE2
Website: http://jerasjamboree.wordpress.com

In the hot seat today I would like to welcome Patricia Sands!

Hello Patricia, thank you for letting us have a peek behind the scenes. Your sun sign is LEO.

Q. A typical Leo loves glamorous locations and adventure. Have you ever researched an idea on holiday? Or taken a trip purely for research?

That’s a timely question Shaz! Are you psychic as well? As we speak, I’m spending 4 months in the south of France where I’m writing my next novel. A good portion of the story is set in this area. My husband and I arrived in Antibes on May 15 and we will be here until the end of September when we’ll return to our home in Toronto. I’m having a wonderful time feeling like I actually live here and if it weren’t for missing our family (particularly adorable grandchildren), we would stay forever!

Q. Leonine people set themselves high standards. When you edit your writing, can this become a problem and cause you frustration?

You’re right about that! I do set high standards in everything I do and sometimes need to be reminded to ease up. As a former schoolteacher, grammar is a major issue with me and I have radar that can spot a typo or a spelling error a mile away. I always like to have a proper editor go through my work as well and find the process extremely worthwhile.

Q. Leo’s love drama. A typical Leo will dislike safety. Do you take risks in your writing projects?

I’m not sure about the drama part ( I love to watch it!) but I am a risk-taker. I do have a comfort zone when it comes to the topics about which I write but within those topics I’m prepared to push the limits. In the final chapter of my novel, The Bridge Club, I address a topic that is controversial as well as current. I was initially concerned that some readers might be offended but I felt so strongly about the subject matter that I knew I had to write about it. I’ve received very positive feedback about it and book clubs have enjoyed the discussion it generates. It’s always nice to discover that the risk was worth it!

Q. Leo energy generally expresses itself as positive thinking – positive thinking attracts opportunities. Are you a positive thinker? Can you share with us a time when positive thinking brought a blessing?

I am a positive thinker through and through. One of my alter egos is Pollyanna Patty and I’m often teased about it! I’m thankful to my Leo energy for this and although I can’t pinpoint a specific example, I feel that I have been blessed through my life as the result of an optimistic attitude. I was widowed at 43 and gained an ever more positive outlook through that devastating experience. I truly believe that every day is a gift to appreciate and give as much to as we possibly can.

Q. In romance, Leo’s have high aspirations and are idealistic. Do any of your lead characters fulfil these expectations?

In The Bridge Club several of the characters had experienced very different dimensions of romance in their relationships but that wasn’t the main focus of any of their stories. In my next novel, still untitled, romance is very much at the forefront (spoiler alert) and the main character realizes she is only just discovering romance for the first time in her fifties. At the beginning of the story she thinks her life is pretty much over in many ways and subsequently discovers it is only just beginning. It’s never too late for romance!

Q. Smaller problems are not an issue for those ruled by the Sun which enables them to see the bigger picture. Are you able to focus on your writing projects as a whole? Does this help when you find things may not be going so well?

I tend to be a “pantser” in my writing, rather than a planner but even so I generally have a clear idea of the bigger picture. Part of the fun of writing is seeing where the characters lead you as they begin to take on lives of their own. I’m often very surprised to discover twists and turns in the story. If things aren’t going well, I step away from my writing and go for a walk or play a game of golf. When I sit down at the computer again I’m usually ready to get right back to it.

Q. The Sun, your ruler, bestows life and light to all. Leo’s get an inordinate amount of pleasure from helping others enjoy life as much as they do. Leo’s love to be in the spotlight and to shine! Do you think this energy motivates your ambition to write?

I’ve been a storyteller all my life through photography. So in that regard, I like to put others in the spotlight but my ego is constantly patting me on the back for the brilliant photo. Does that sound like a Leo? My family and my friends are the most important things in my life and making sure we are all happy and enjoying life to the fullest is what drives me. I’m really not sure what motivates me to write. What I do know is that I love the experience! (An unexpected side benefit to this adventure of being a writer is the amazing global community of writers that one meets. The amount of information sharing is without measure and the wonderful connections made are priceless.)

A perfect example is the fact that I’m sitting here with you! Thanks so much for inviting me over, Shaz, it’s been great fun!

Hop on over to Shaz’s website. This multi-talented lady is also a Reiki Master who is currently studying for a crystal healing diploma. She also teaches literacy to children with dyslexia. Pretty awesome!

What is your astrological sign? Have you ever had a reading to see how your sign impacts your personality and the choices you make? Were you surprised by what you learned or do you tend to ignore the zodiac and its implications? Let’s hear about it!

 

A holiday gift for every one of you

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 No matter what holiday you celebrate at this time of year, this is a gift that has all sorts of great tips to get you through the season doing happy dances. You might even discover a new idea or a solution to some niggling dilemma! Hurry … take a look and then hit download … it’s FREE!

Free eBook: Girlfriendology Guide to Holiday Girlfriend Advice

I was delighted when the fabulous Debba Haupert, girlfriend extraordinaire and founder of the amazing Girlfriendology  website invited me to be part of this Holiday guide. My contribution can be found on page 17!
With a family the size of mine, I’m sure you can imagine what I’m talking about!
I’m super excited to share this 80-page gift from Girlfriendology where you’ll find everything from gift ideas to financial advice to traditions to baking tips and much, much more …  *stopping to catch my breath* … it’s just jam-packed with all sorts of information and ideas we girlfriends love to share!  It’s beautifully presented and you can give it away to all of your friends! Bonus!All you have to do to download the book is click on the link below!

Download the FREE Girlfriendology Guide to Holiday Girlfriend Advice eBook

Which holiday does your family celebrate? Is there a tip you would like to share? Feel free to add it here!

Lights, Camera, Action!

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Do you love movies? I do! My husband and I go out to the movies at least once a week and watch several more a week at home. Okay, full disclosure – if the weather is really bad, we’ve been known to do a triple-feature . I’m not necessarily proud of that but it is kind of fun when there’s a winter storm raging on the other side of the windows!

There’s one couple though that I believe has watched more movies than anyone else around in the past couple of years. Susan Winlaw and Alexander Law have recently published three terrific books for movie buffs.

Movies About Weddings – A guide to 700+ movies with weddings

Movies About Christmas – Naughty or Nice? (400+)

Movies About Women – Reel women share stories of life and love (500+)

Can you imagine how much popcorn they  must have consumed? I can’t watch a movie without it! Seriously, the amount of time and effort put into these books is phenomenal. They would make wonderful gifts for a wedding shower, birthday or Christmas for anyone you know who loves to watch movies. One-stop shopping right here! Take a look!

I recently had a great chat with Susan.

What was your primary inspiration for publishing books about movies?

 Alex (my husband and co-author) and I have always been interested in movies and we’ve shared our favourite films with friends over the years. This project is an extension of that sharing to a wider audience.

Basically, we wanted to help women find movies they’d like to watch and saw there was nothing like this out there. Sure there are huge books that come out every year from famous movie critics but they are enormous. We started with 3 areas that interest many women. We wanted to bring forward some excellent movies that have been forgotten or are completely unknown and shine a light on them.

  So far you have covered movies about Weddings, Christmas, and now Women. Which was your favourite book to put together?

 Each one had special moments, particularly when I’d watch to review a film that moved me. The more I got into the rich mosaic of Women, the more I enjoyed that theme. We’re working on volume 2 of Movies About Women  and are asking all of our contacts for suggestions. So far there are enough to fill that volume and continue into number 3.

 The books contain an incredible amount of information! What sort of a process do you use and how long does each one take?

The process continues to evolve. Basically we are watching movies all the time from many different sources (in theatres, on TV, through Netflix, from Rogers DVD mailing service, from the Toronto Public Library, etc). We’ll either do a review right then or mark it for a future book theme. This also makes it impossible to answer how much time each book takes, as we’re always working on more than one book at the same time. But our first book in the series took us about 18 months of research and writing to get it to the press copies.

It’s important to know that each one of the films covered in our books has been watched by either Alex or myself and often both of us.

Now for the technical side, I had to learn Adobe’s InDesign to do a professional assembly for our printer in Oshawa and that was quite the challenge. Our first book (Car Advice for Women, And Smart Men) was a slightly smaller format than the movie guide books and we decided to make the Movies About… series a bit larger but no thicker. We wanted them to feel good in the hand. I didn’t know much about the program then, but I’ve learned more with each book, so it is a bit easier now – especially for indexing and categorizing of the movies. Categorizing involves our own personal categories and adding the basic ones that are inside the International Movie Database (IMDB). These categories help readers find the movies that appeal to them.

We have kept the number of pages to a maximum so the book fits into the letterbox and has a one price mailing cost in Canada and the US. We felt that was important and also simpler for us to handle. We also thought it was important that our Canadian purchasers did not have to pay more than our American buyers.

Was there anything that came as a great surprise to you in the journey from the spark of an idea to the final product?

 Yes. There are so many different pieces to put in place to produce the book and the amount of time it takes is staggering. Each piece takes a lot longer than you expect. Crosschecking the spelling of names that you know from seeing them a million times on the screen takes a very detailed hand and has to be done continually. The editing and proofreading is no simple matter and even after 10 times through, you still miss a few things. There are some parts of the publishing process that are outside my grasp, but I am trying to make the contacts to learn what I need and want to be able to share this with other authors who wish to publish their own works.

There is very little written in sufficient detail for the author/publisher who is in Canada who wishes to publish physical books for the North American audience, let alone publishing to sell to a global audience.

 How do you market and promote these editions? It strikes me they would be very good gift ideas!

 Right now our marketing and promotion is through all of the social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, GoodReads, etc) and with our websites and Press Releases that are sent out to all levels of media in both Canada and the US.

I also participate in shows where our audience would go – Word on the Street, Women’s Expo events, women’s networking events and anything that is reasonably priced. I’ve done a few author signings at local coffee shops and Chapters (Bayview Village in Toronto). And I’ve been invited to participate in internet radio/TV shows both here and in the US.

A few weeks ago I was part of a morning show on Rogers local cable in my home town of Woodstock, then did a signing at the Tim Horton’s close by, followed by a visit to Merrifield’s Book Shop.

The books are great gift ideas – especially when packaged together with a big bowl, some popcorn, a DVD and a card that promises the recipient that the movie will be watched together. You have a gift that keeps on giving (as the books let you find many more movies to see for years to come) and the gift of time with that person and that’s PRICELESS.

What future projects do you have in mind and when might we expect to see the next book from Bam Press?

 We have over 30 themes that we’re working on at all times, and there will be 2 books coming next year. We formed BAM Press to do these projects and we know that down the road we’ll be publishing movie guide books in themes that are not of a particular interest to us that will be written by other authors using our format.

 What advice would you give to someone who is considering publishing a similar type of book for the first time?

 Have a lot of money set aside well in advance. Plan your social media as you are working on the books so that you have a large following well before the book comes out. Take all of your time estimates and triple them and have a lot of supportive friends around to keep you going when the going gets tough.

You’ll also need space to store the books when they come off the printing press before you ship them to your readers.

Join writers groups both in your local area and on line and take on line courses to help with the book writing/editing and marketing.

Plan for a good editor as well as good proof readers and do not assume they will catch all the errors. You must also proof it yourself. Take time selecting your printer/binder from at least 6 companies and make on site visits so you can see their operation first hand and get a feel for the people you will be dealing with.

And connect with me as I will share our experiences to save you some time and perhaps some money. You can find me on Facebook and LinkedIn and through our web site http://bampress.com

Susan Winlaw – President BAM Press

Author/Speaker/Publisher/Editor

Movies About Women – Reel Women Share Stories of Live and Love – Pre Press copies are available now.

http://moviesaboutwomen.com

Movies About Weddings – A Guide to 700+ Movies With Weddings

http://moviesaboutweddings.com

Movies About Christmas – Naughty or Nice? A Guide to over 400 Movies With Christmas

http://bampress.com

and in the safety line…..

Car Advice For Women (and Smart Men)

http://www.caradviceforwomen.com

Coming Soon…………Safety Advice For Women

One Yonge Street, Suite 1801,

Toronto, ON, Canada, M5E 1W7      VMail & FAX 416-981-3404

Are you a movie buff? What type of movies do you most enjoy?

While I’m on this topic, I want to suggest that you visit Jillian Dodd’s entertaining blog where she reviews movies on Fridays. Last Friday she reviewed The Ides of March which we just happened to see today. Her comments are spot on! She’s good and she is hilarious!

A fine example of friendship

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The very best part of having my novel published is meeting readers. In the past 10 months I’ve had the pleasure of being in the company of some fine, interesting women who, like the ladies of The Bridge Club, have shared a friendship through many decades. I would like to introduce you to one group  that invited me to join them for an evening after they had read The Bridge Club. I couldn’t begin to tell you all they have shared through the years, so these words were sent to me by one of the members. Enjoy their story.

A Brief History of B & B Interest Group

This group was formed in September 1969 by a small collection of Toronto friends, most of whom were physiotherapists. We in turn brought along co-workers, neighbours and other friends.  It began as an investment club and was named “B & B Investment Club” as most of us were home with babies (in those days!) and so were investing our Baby Bonus cheques. You can imagine how much that was!

After 4 years, during which we lost a little, gained a little but learned a lot,  we felt we knew more than Bay Street (home of the Toronto Stock Exchange) , which wasn’t too exciting at that time and so we disbanded.   By then, given the savvy group that we’d become,  our name had changed to “Bull & Bear  Investment Club”.   

After two years (Sept. ’75), having missed the camaraderie & stimulation we had shared,  we decided to re-invent ourselves. This time as an Interest Group.  Out of convenience,  the name B & B remained as that was what was on our bank account.   The group had started with around 20 members and has continued to fluctuate over the years between 18—24 members, most of whom lived in the west end of city.  In 1975 I moved to Oakville, but wanting to remain with group, I started inviting a few Oakville friends to come with me … mainly for company on the drive since most of our meetings were still at night.  Presently we are now pretty evenly divided between Oakville and Toronto.

By the late 70’s we had evolved into quite an interesting and more diverse group; some had returned to work, many were still home raising children and some were career women with no children. Thus, we had extremely varied interests.  We also had a wonderful array of interesting friends, leading to great contacts and resources for our topics/guest speakers.  We have seldom paid huge honorariums for our speakers; as you are well aware, most receive a potted plant, bottle of wine or donation to their favourite charity. We’ve been very fortunate to have such willing and generous friends.

Over the years we’ve continued to meet monthly, except for summer.  Meetings are either at each other’s homes or are outings, tours, etc.  Our June meeting is always a wind-up party (lots of great food & wine!) during which we discuss which book/books we might read over the summer before our September “book review” meeting.  Luckily we have 2 high school English teachers in group who usually lead this.  We’ve covered best sellers, Canadian authors, current/hot topics,, (occasional trashy novel….always good summer read)!  On occasion, as in this month, we’ve been very privileged to actually meet with the author.  The program for the coming season is also discussed with suggested topics, names, dates drawn from hat … we usually work in pairs.   Point of interest … our June parties started out as pot luck (when we had no $$), then evolved to dinners out (while we left dads home to babysit), then once dining out was no longer a novelty we had dinner catered in our homes … now that we’re all retired (several are “pensioners”!), we’re back to doing pot luck … although it’s certainly quite a spread, along with our Xmas party which I forgot to mention!

Over the years we’ve had many interesting and timely topics, enjoyed guest speakers ranging from judges and divorce lawyers,  ministers, doctors and child psychologists, ballerinas, sculptors, gourmet chefs, wine connoisseurs,  fitness experts, furriers, gemologists, genealogists, interior designers, gardeners, retirement planners, representatives of many worthwhile charitable causes (to which we in turn donate), not to mention interesting travelogues, usually presented by our own members as we (eventually) traveled the world.  Tours have included Ford Plant, Woodbine Race track (one of our newer members even owns a racehorse;  she was a very welcome addition), back stage at National Ballet and new Opera House, AGO, ROM and Gairdner exhibits, Air Farce, new CBC building and many more fascinating places.   

On reading through our  history one can easily see how our group and its interests have evolved over the years; about the only thing we haven’t covered is longterm care facilities or “alternate burial” options!

It’s been quite a ride and lots of fun along the way.  Our members have come and gone for various reasons but the majority have been together for  at least 20 years , including some originals.  We currently range in age from mid-60’s to 80.  We’ve had only a couple of divorces, 3 widows, 2 heart attacks, 1 death (age 81), too much cancer, and of course several joint replacements.  I suspect that,  in the near future, most of our meetings  will switch to daytime as fewer people like to drive very far at night.  I do think/hope,  however, that given our long history/association,  we will all do our damnedest to hang in with this very special group.

Sounds like a plan! My sincere thanks to each of you in the B&B Interest Group for a great evening of excellent conversation, lots of laughter, and a most delicious buffet table! Thank you also for your perceptive questions and comments about The Bridge Club. It’s incredibly rewarding to hear readers express how they relate to a writer’s work and your praise was most appreciated. The highlight of the evening, for me, was experiencing the obvious affection and respect you have for each other and for your enduring friendship. As kids say these days, you rock!

If this group of friends reminds you of one you know, I would love to hear from you. These are definitely stories worth sharing. It’s a big part of what makes the world go around.