Selling Your Novel: Crafting a Successful Novel That Will Sell with Ric Wasley

Date: Wednesday, April 9
Time: 7 PM
Location: Watertown Savings Bank Room

Have you always wanted to be an author? Have you got some great material? Has everyone told you, “Hey, you should write a book?” Well, according to Ric Wasley, writing the book may actually be the easiest part of the process – it’s everything else that’s hard. It takes skill, tenacity and above all … marketing and communications. Join him in an interactive discussion of how to get major publishers to sit up and take notice of you.

Wasley, whose second novel, Shadow of Innocence, was released internationally this year, started out five years ago like so many would-be authors, with an idea for a story and a need to tell it. However, he found out along the way that it’s not enough to have a good idea; you’ve also got to find a way to get someone to listen to it. That takes skill, tenacity and above all … marketing and communications.

Wasley feels there are ways for authors to stack the deck a little more in their favor. Join him in an interactive discussion of not just the intricacies of structuring a plot and characters, but how to get major publishers to sit up and take notice of you. Just like Mick in his novel, Shadow of Innocence, Ric Wasley thrived on music in the sixties and performed as a folksinger and in rock several bands all over New England. He met the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Wasley has been writing for over 30 years. He has been published in several literary magazines in L.A. and San Francisco while living in California. Wasley has fond memories of living in Watertown but currently lives in a MetreoWest community with his wife and three children, works for a major media company and retains his love of music and writing.

*Handicapped Accessible

Staff Picks: Pauli

Kabul Beauty School: an American Woman Goes Behind the Veil by Deborah Rodriguez.
NY: Random House, 2007.

Pauli says : I just finished listening to Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez on CD. I was enthralled by the story of a Michigan beautician (Rodriguez) who started a beauty school in Kabul, Afghanistan, after visiting there with a non-governmental agency and realizing that both Westerners and Afghani women were starved for hair salons. She forms lasting friendships and assists hundreds of women to become as self-sufficient as possible in a conservative, war-torn country.

The Readers’ Café Book Club will be discussing this book at the library on April 9th at 7 PM.

Allan G. Hunter Author Talk

Come hear Watertown author Allan Hunter talk about his book, Stories We Need to Know on Wednesday, March 26 at 7PM.

In Stories We Need to Know Allan Hunter uses stories from 3,000 years of the western canon to explore the six stages that characters progress through and how we might see ourselves and our own journey in a new way.

Come hear Allan talk and see his slide presentation!  All welcome!

Invisible Children Screening

Invisible Children Documentary screening on March 19, 6:30 at the Watertown Free Public Library

The Invisible Children project began with three young filmmakers traveling to Africa. While they were there, they learned of a tragic situation in Uganda where children were being abducted from their homes and forced to fight a civil war. These young men documented the story of children who became “night commuters” in order to avoid abduction. When the filmmakers returned to America they began an ambitious program designed to improve the quality of life for children who have been affected by war.

Last year Watertown High school students including members of the Library’s Teen Advisory Board took on the project to help bring funding to schools in Uganda. At this screening Lydia Mutagubya, will be introduced, a young woman from Uganda who has been involved with the Invisible Children project and the Watertown Schools. Along with her will be Ssendagire Stephen, the principal of the Bright Future Child Ministries, who will be sharing his schools’ situation which involves many orphaned children.