Excerpt 

“I’m not weak,” she protested. 

“No, but your strength is different.” His eyes glinted. “You will make such beautiful babies.”

“Babies!” she spluttered, spraying bits of egg.

He leaned back in his chair, gaze assessing her. “What? You did not think I invited every woman whose body I enjoyed to live with me?”

From the darkening expression on her face, he could see that he’d not expressed himself well. Cecily set down her fork with a distinct clink.

“That’s all I am to you? A body to enjoy and an incubator for your babies?”

Not much scared Pyotr, but this cold, hard expression on his beloved Cecily’s face did. Thus far, he’d managed to keep her bound to him by virtue of a job she loved and frequent, amazing sex. However, dread churned his belly as she rose from the chair.

“Thank you for breakfast,” she said with chilly politeness and left the table, her food mostly uneaten.

“Cecily!” he called after her.

She ignored him and disappeared into the bedroom.

He rose from the table to go after her, but his cell phone rang.

“Da.”

There was no polite inquiry as to whether that was a good time, only the command, “Come, you are needed.”

There was only one possible response: “On my way.”

Wishing he could pursue Cecily, apologize, and explain what he really meant, he heeded Maksim’s call. Instead, he poked his head into the bedroom and said, “I must go.”

Cecily, tugging on a comfortable pair of jeans, nodded her acknowledgement without turning to look at him. The snub stung.

Pyotr left.

When dressed, Cecily stood in the room, completely unsure of herself. Slowly, she walked to the nightstand where her phone lay plugged into recharge. She unplugged it and dialed.

“What’s up, Cece?”

“Latasha, are you busy?”

“Girl, I am always busy, but never too busy for you. What do you need?”

“I—I need to talk.”

“Did that big, dumb Russian hurt you?” her friend growled.

“Er, no, he wouldn’t hit me.” She knew that for truth. The big, brutal Russian treated her with utmost care. Gennady hurt women, not Pyotr, and liked it.

Latasha’s sigh seemed to hit her ear with a long-distance gust of air. “You working tonight?”

“Yeah.”

“My shift doesn’t end until four o’clock. God, hospital hours are crazy. Anyway, I can meet you during your break tonight or…” The silence lasted about three seconds. “No, no, that won’t work. Tell me now, girl, what’s got you so upset.”

“It’s Pyotr.”

“Well, duh. What did the big oaf do?”

Tears welled up and ran down Cecily’s cheeks as she blurted, “He said he wants me for sex and babies!”

​“Whoa, there,” Latasha cautioned. “Are you sure that’s what he said?”

The Winter Book Fair failed to expectations. Or, rather, it failed to meet my expectations.

I have no complaint with regard to the event's co-host and venue, Mother Stewart's Brewing Company. They were fabulous. The venue charmed most of the participating authors with its unique character. And the brewery's owner even supplied my caffeine habit with a smile and personal delivery of a cup of coffee to my table.

Parking again proved to be problematic with authors not understanding where to park their vehicles, despite providing people with directions, a map, and explicit instructions not to park in the brewery's parking lot. The brewery posted a sidewalk sign: EVENT PARKING. Apparently, few people saw it. However, we soon got everyone straightened out, freeing the brewery's limited parking space for patrons.

Author registration for this event extended beyond those authors in Ohio. We had one author from Illinois and another from Kentucky. Frankly, I had a harder time filling the available tables than the first go-around. I think the season may have been a factor: weather and travel conditions in February in southwest Ohio are notoriously unpredictable and usually unpleasant.

As noted, most seemed to like the venue, which is an historic industrial building converted into a craft brewery and tap room. One author expressed dissatisfaction, stating a preference for a more traditional location. I think the brewing room terrific. It's interesting and unique. After all, you won't find those huge wooden beams and exposed brick walls in a modern hotel conference room. Nor will you get natural light through windows from a modern hotel conference room.

Mother Stewart's does not serve food, so they maintain a rotating roster of gourmet food trucks that operate just outside the building's front entrance. The food truck scheduled for February 10 was Bistro de Mohr, which came up from Cincinnati. They offered an interesting menu of gyros, goat tacos, pulled pork, and hog balls. Don't ask. It was delicious. We worked out a cross-promotion deal by which we helped promote the food truck and they helped promote the book fair. 

Several factors worked against our hopes for unqualified success. Social media analysis suggested that the event would draw in a sizable crowd. Snow and nasty road conditions squelched that. (Of course, Sunday's patronage differs from the Saturday's for reasons so obvious I won't list them here.) Anyway, we had a steady, but thin, trickle of people wander through. Just about every author sold a book or two.

As always there are lessons to be learned. Here's my short list:

• Shorten hours of operation. With cold, snow, icy roads, and early nightfall, several authors bugged out well before the event closed at 7:00 PM. For the next Winter Book Fair, we'll keep the hours more reasonable, say 12:00 - 4:00 PM or maybe 5:00 PM.
• Omit the social hour. Author feedback from the first event last August showed a desire for a "meet-and-greet" when authors could mingle and get to know one another. Yeah, no. That idea fizzled. Authors barely nibbled at the snacks I brought and didn't take advantage of the opportunity to socialize in the hour before the book fair opened, which meant that attendees wandering through got to help themselves to free munchies.
• Keep the drink tickets. I believe authors appreciated the drink tickets which they could redeem at the bar for soft drinks or beer. One participating author suggested offering sandwiches, etc., but that would compete with the food truck. I don't want to do that. Food service adds more complexity to the organizational effort than I care to deal with.

I met some wonderful and interesting people. Event like this really do bring together people together who otherwise wouldn't normally ever meet. Introvert that I am, I enjoyed that part tremendously. It's more than just professional networking, it's the opportunity to make new friends who do what I do and understand the vagaries of being an author. They get it.​

"Failed to meet expectations" does not translate into a failed event. We've already scheduled the Summer Book Fair for Saturday, August 17. (Registration for the Summer Book Fair will open in May. Stay tuned!) For summer, we'll keep the longer hours: 12:00 - 7:00 PM. We'll bank on the larger Saturday crowd and begin establishing an event pattern that people will expect and anticipate. With luck perseverance, our audience will grow.

​#SpringfieldOHBookFair #Winter #Books #Authors #HenHousePublishing ​​​​​

Within every society there is a fairly narrow set of boundaries for what constitutes acceptable moral conduct. In early American history, the concept of slavery fit within this standard, and when Mark Twain challenged the morality of slavery in ‘Huckleberry Finn’ he helped to create the kind of social awareness that eventually moved the moral compass of our whole society. The problem is that challenging the moral perspective of a society is a contentious and therefore hazardous action. An author who achieves a high standing within the literary community of his or her age, becomes reluctant to examine the existing moral structure. It is only the independent writer, who does not fear to lose a position of social stature, that is free to anticipate the moral standard of a better world. 

Educated people often complain about the quality of film and literature that is widely available. There is the pretense that only the very best scripts are made into films, but you only need peruse titles like ‘Sharknado’ to come to the realization that this isn’t the truth. One of the most successful entertainment franchises of our time is the series of films featuring Marvel superheroes. Although these films are great entertainment, particularly for munching on popcorn in an air-conditioned theater on a hot summer day, these films leave no lasting impression or engage in any controversial topics. 

Even more artistic films from major studios are relatively conservative. In our contentious era, studios are fearful of any controversy as a viral outbreak of social justice outrage can kill a film before it even premieres. Modern studios are prone to cutting ties with their talent at the first sign of controversy, even for transgressions as small as a series of ill-advised, disavowed tweets from decades ago. This is despite the fact that these same studios have various examples of racism, misogyny and exploitation in their vaults. 

Because the effort to challenge the moral compass of a society is inherently controversial, it is becoming less and less likely that the leaders of our established artistic communities will be inclined to do so. Those who have earned reputations as great modern writers have done so by existing within the narrow corridor of what is considered acceptable moral conduct. By the time they have achieved a hard-won status, they have allowed themselves to become indoctrinated against taking certain kinds of risks. 

This is not to say that all independent writers are champions of a higher moral standard, they most certainly are not. Independent writers cover the entire spectrum. Some independent writers fall neatly within the moral standard of our time. There exist too, unfortunately, a significant group of independent writers that endeavor to take us back to reprehensible times of moral depravity. But there are also a small group of independent writers that, due to their low profile, are able to wrestle with important issues free from the pressure of imminent and unfair social justice prosecution. 

It really is a very exciting time for publishing. Innovations like electronic books have made it possible for small publishers to release dynamic works at low cost. These publishers still approach their novels with the same diligence of editing and refinement of the major publishers, but they aren’t afraid to engage exactly the type of challenging issues that most of the educated populace complains is absent from mainstream media. The problem is that the general public still hasn’t come to fully understand the full potential of independent books. 

If you’ve ever found yourself complaining, “There’s nothing at this bookstore I really want to read,” or “There’s nothing on television I really want to see,” then take a dive into some independent books. Read the excerpts, peruse Reddit chatrooms for recommendations, and above all write reviews on everything you engage with. The simple fact is, when it comes to the major publishers, your review, your voice, will not bring about any change. It’s only in the independent community that the reader can help shape the literature of the era. 

For those of you who wish to discuss this concept further, please don’t hesitate to write me at the email provided below. Also, please check out my latest release from Burning Bulb Publishing: Paperclip. I don’t claim that this is a book that will change society as we know it, but it is a good read, and it does take a dozen or so chances that you probably won’t see in a release from a major publisher. If you’re sick of the same old safe stories, why not try something that might surprise you?