Reasons To Be Thankful

As we come to the end of the year, and the beginning of the holiday season, I've realized I need to stop and truly be thankful.  Not just because it's Thanksgiving Day, but because there are many blessings in my life that I should recognize.  And believe me, that's hard for me to do right now.

This year has been tough.  I lost my job in April, due to a mismanaged business that was failing and eventually went bankrupt.  I didn't plan for it and with no notice, I was out of a job.  Being the main breadwinner, this had devastating consequences on my family.  I filed for unemployment and learned firsthand how ineffective and inadequate that whole system is.  But the worst was yet to come.

Because I remained unemployed for six months.  That may not seem like a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but to me it was stunning.  It represented six car payments, house payments, and insurances, on two cars.  It was six phone bills and six gas and electric bills and for the first time ever, we got delinquent notices and notices advising us we were close to disconnection.  It was illuminating.  And humiliating.

I'm happy to say I am employed now, but I make almost $30k less than I used to.  And my family has learned how to live on that.  I don't want to say I am thankful for losing my job and being placed in that tenuous position, but I am grateful for the lessons I learned.

So today, on this day of thanks, I want to be specific in those things I am grateful to have.

I am grateful to be employed, to have somewhere to go every day where I am reminded of my worth, my value, and my contribution.  I am grateful to be a mother of the most wonderful children on earth who are way too young to be concerned about our family's finances, but who still understand why they can't have new things.  I love you so much, babies.  I give thanks for my husband, and the life we have lived together for twelve years.  I hope he knows how much I love him.

I am grateful for the gift I have for writing, and weaving worlds others want to enjoy.  I am grateful every time a reader tells me how I have transported them and how much they enjoyed something I wrote.  I am grateful I sit in front of my laptop and still have ideas flood my head every day.

And even though I am not with my family for this Thanksgiving day because I am working, I am thankful that unlike millions of people, I will, eventually, sit down to a meal prepared by my family with love, warmed up on a plate my husband will assure I have. And for that I am truly grateful.

Most of all, I am grateful for what I don't know yet, and that is what the future holds.  I'm excited by all the possibilities I have in life still, and that this new year coming could be the start of something amazing.  Life is a wondrous, precious thing, and today, I am grateful to be living it.  I hope you are too.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to my loving family, immediate and extended, and my wonderful friends in life and on Facebook and Twitter.  I hope you enjoy each other's company today.  And give thanks for everything you have.   I wish you all the best for this season of thanks.

The Importance of Being an Informed Author

I am reposting a guest blog I did recently because I think the information could be valuable.  Please let me know what you think.

Blog Post:  On Being an Informed Author

I haven't been publishing long, but what I have learned about the publishing game recently, well, I could write a book.  I've been scammed, duped, taken advantage of, however you want to say it.  And all because I trusted.  My blind faith is partly to blame for my current woes.  Let me explain.

I had published my first book, Spellbound, with an incredibly professional and truly wonderful house called Astraea Press.  As an illustration of my satisfaction with them, I have published one more, Ghostly, and have another coming in January, Everspell, the sequel to Spellbound.  I am more than happy with them and had no reason to look for another publisher.

Except one:  they don't publish horror.  And I had a new manuscript I wanted out there, The Detention Demon, a middle grade horror story I was, and still am, especially fond of.  So I did my due diligence online and found a new house that took horror submissions.

I was thrilled when Aspen Mountain Press accepted me and offered me a contract.  I was a bit taken aback that it was for seven years.  My works with Astraea Press are all for three years.  But I didn't question it.  And besides, as soon as I was accepted, things whipped into motion.

They had an author site I was registered for, where I could track the progress of my publication.  Several dozen books were already listed there, I could see when I signed up.  I was immediately contacted by staff about my editor and artist assignments and given a release date of October 3, 2011.  It seemed so professional and together, I was impressed.  That ended quickly.

Shortly after I was accepted, current staff walked out due to an inability to work with the publisher, Sandra Hicks.  I would later learn that this was the same personnel responsible for the quick assignments, the release date, and the organized and methodical way I was accepted into the house.  At this point, the house collapsed.  Actually, it imploded.  It wasn't gradual.  The only thing gradual was my dawning realization that I totally picked the wrong horse.

As of this writing, 42 authors including myself, have their books stuck at the non-operating house.  The publisher, Sandra Hicks, refuses to release us, or communicate at all regarding returning the rights to our books.  Mine never even published.  Others were published, rights expired, and she continues to collect money for their sales.  Authors have taken to their OWN websites and begged the public NOT to purchase their books.  it is a catastrophic mess and we authors are the victims in the middle of it all.

I'm writing this blog in hopes that future authors will be forewarned.  Although I truly believe there was no way to foresee this, other situations are not so difficult to see through.  I implore every writer to READ every line of that contract you've just been offered.  If you don't like the terms, even one small thing about it, DON'T SIGN IT.  My contract with Aspen Mtn. Press stipulated we could request our rights back if the company failed to operate by sending a certified letter.  Great, except she refuses to accept them.  Look for any loophole you think favors the publisher and not you, and lobby for it's change.  If they want you, they'll change it.

Or do what I did.  I have submitted my new speculative fiction work to a new house, formed by the incredible staff that left AMP, Musa Publishing.  For everything wrong at AMP, Musa is doing everything right.  Clear, concise contracts, terms that favor the author, and above all, transparent accounting of sales of books.  There is no reason every author shouldn't be demanding these anyway.

The bottom line is, you need to be aware of what you are signing.  Don't be in such a hurry to see your words immortalized that you settle.  Never settle.  Your work, your words, your craft is important enough to you that you have sacrificed for it.  Don't sell yourself short. 

Lastly, if you have been wronged, make sure you tell the world.  You have a voice, you're a writer for crying out loud....put that talent to work.  Avail yourself of every social network out there and expose those with no integrity without reservation.  We authors trapped at AMP are doing that for you now....I hope you never have to do it for me.

Write, publish, and BE INFORMED.

Samantha Combs