Virtual Release Recap and Back to Revising & Editing of Not Your Abuelita's Folktales #barrioblues

Well, yesterday, I had my first-ever test virtual release party. Woo hoo! 

I learned a great deal.

(1) The problems your foresee may not happen at all.  I had no tech issues.  Wait, that's not totally true.  I couldn't get the printer driver to work on my new laptop, so I couldn't read the story off paper which is my forte.

(2) The problems you did not foresee should not drive you crazy (kids crying and photo bombing). 

(3) What you think looks awful, isn't so bad. 

All in all, I had a great time!  You can see how that rolled out live on Facebook. I am also planning on doing short readings of my work because that got lost in the mix a bit.  This Sunday, I will do a bit of a longer vlog and make sure the kids are not around! 

I enjoyed the experiences so much I already set up the next event, which I shortened to 30 minutes.  You can take the poll and tell me what kind of story you want me to write for the May 1 freebie.  I hope to do those once a month on the first of the month, so I can have at least one virtual events scheduled. 

My first-ever book release party of Not Your Abuelita's Folktales is still happening, ideally mid-April or after the semester is over after May 13th.  I will post that event, after I work out all the kinks with Ingram.     

Oh, and I finally got "Zona 5" on the Premium Smashwords catalogue, but I botched up an upload this morning because I was trying to fix "La Lechuza" which had link problems, pernicious hidden book marks.  Ergo, when you have a bad headache, perhaps you should not upload important files.  Still, the story is up, and hopefully all is well. 

Last night, I started going over Not Your Abuelita's Folktales.  It turns out the copy is pretty clean.  I suppose through all of this hard work, I have forgotten how many times I have gone over it and proofread it.  Still, I am going to do two more passes, going forwards and backwards, especially to make sure all the Spanish is translated in footnotes. Then, I'm going to read it out loud.  Finally, I am going to read the ebook, and ONLY then send it to be copy edited.  What I am NOT going to do is make any changes after the copy editor has gone over it.

I made that mistake with "Zona 5" and was angry I found three typos after I uploaded the file.

Enough wah! I want to thank all of your for supporting my work, especially for downloading and reviewing my books and stories.  Last week, I got the kindest review from my author-sister, Carmen Baca on Goodreads:

*****
Bruja in the Orchard is a fast but highly entertaining read. Señora Estrada drew me into the world of 5-year-old Mona, the little girl who sees what goes on around her without understanding some of it. Where did her brother Pancho go and why is her sister Christi so mean to her? She longs to escape her hurtful home, and in the end she finds escape in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

Estrada writes like I do, using our Spanish words for effect, reminding us of our own pasts because of what her characters go through, making us see the cruelty in some people and the justice they get at the hands of those who fight back. I highly recommend this book to those of you who like my own books.
Carmen Baca, author

You can visit my Goodreads page here.
*****
Muchisimas gracias all of you!

Well, celebrate and celebrate some more. Your work adds to the goodness of the universe. #barrioblues