A behind-the-scenes look at and inside scoop on PROOF OF EXISTENCE, Book Two of the Existence series.
📚 Proof of Existence - Published April 4, 2023
Excerpt from Proof of Existence by @JLenniDorner
When a mother and son are accomplished dancers, the Collegiate Shag dance is a lot of fun.
This excerpt is much shorter than others this month. The scene it comes from is a huge spoiler alert. Thus, I knocked it down to this one paragraph. I didn't use the word "dance" with the name because it felt redundant.
Given the area I'm from, maybe you should all just be grateful I left out the Chicken Dance!
QUESTION — Do you know how to swing dance? Have you ever done the Chicken dance?
Enter the GIVEAWAY http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4fa90ac752
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Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
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Given the area I'm from, maybe you should all just be grateful I left out the Chicken Dance!
QUESTION — Do you know how to swing dance? Have you ever done the Chicken dance?
💻📚🛒📦😃📖#AtoZChallenge
a-to-zchallenge.com
Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Jemima Pett, Nancy Gideon, and Natalie Aguirre!
My current insecurity-- There's a countdown when putting an ebook up for pre-order. When the clock runs out, no more corrected ebook files can be uploaded. (Until sometime after sales start.) I had found one of the shuttered/shuddered errors. Ronel noticed three others, and draws/ drawers. But the countdown closed twenty minutes earlier than I expected. Doh!
🤦🏽♂️ *hangs head in shame*
— J Lenni Dorner (@JLenniDorner) March 31, 2023
The clock ran out on updating the preorder ebook file on Amazon.
Though the "shuttered"s have been corrected to "shuddered" and "draws" to "drawers," these changes missed the preorder file.
Time is a cruel master. ⏳@miladyronel
What really bugs me about this is how much I hate shutters. Specifically, fake ones, and the most irritating of all are when they don't line up with a window and it's evident they could never actually cover the glass because they're the wrong size. And that's the word I used like a homophone (which it really wouldn't be, exactly, just close).
I guess the shutters got their revenge. And yes, the thought of that does make me shudder.
Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?
I shared my first story with my hands and drawings in the dirt. Roughly a decade later, while under the teaching of an elder Lenni-Lenape, I copied down one of our legends. He then burned it and spread the ashes, telling me of the times when all we had recorded was destroyed. How any who tried to keep a record had their heads removed. I countered that this could not be true now. (Earning myself the label, "He who expects more than accepts.") The law, older than my state and this country, was never repealed officially. (According to those who research such things.) Is it enforced today? Perhaps not, but COULD it be? Yeah. The Lenni-Lenape were not among the tribes given certain rights or recognition. Pennsylvania still does not hold us as an official tribe of this state (though the entire state, and several surrounding ones, in whole or part, are on the lands which were ours for tens of thousands of years).
April 5 question -
Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now and how is it working out for you? If you're at the start of the journey, what are your goals?
I shared my first story with my hands and drawings in the dirt. Roughly a decade later, while under the teaching of an elder Lenni-Lenape, I copied down one of our legends. He then burned it and spread the ashes, telling me of the times when all we had recorded was destroyed. How any who tried to keep a record had their heads removed. I countered that this could not be true now. (Earning myself the label, "He who expects more than accepts.") The law, older than my state and this country, was never repealed officially. (According to those who research such things.) Is it enforced today? Perhaps not, but COULD it be? Yeah. The Lenni-Lenape were not among the tribes given certain rights or recognition. Pennsylvania still does not hold us as an official tribe of this state (though the entire state, and several surrounding ones, in whole or part, are on the lands which were ours for tens of thousands of years).
Did I think, at that time, that I could have a career as a writer? A career? I didn't honestly expect to live into my twenties. The fact that I'm in my forties now, that some call me an elder as of the last two years, that blows my mind. 🤯
When I was at the "start" of my journey, I was working for a small group, doing some copywriting and then some ghostwriting. Most of my co-workers and the owner were at a meeting in NYC one September morning. I wasn't there because I was on a different assignment that day. I watched them die on national television. I took some odd jobs then, just trying to cope. And eventually, I met a special someone who I'd later marry. That's when I started writing again. Of course, all the contacts I had in publishing were dead. So I was, once again, no one. I sent query letters, but agents didn't understand the story I meant to tell. I decided to self-publish.
Please also visit: The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club on Goodreads.
yolandarenee.blogspot.com/2023/04/proof-of-existence-by-j-lenni-dorner.html Please check out the interview. Find a DARKER side of this urban fantasy.
https://etoithomas.com/iwsg-apr-2023-proof-of-existence-is-here/ IWSG - Don't miss this post!
Happening at OperationAwesome6.blogspot.com
I'm the author interviewed today! Please check it out.
Happening at the A to Z Challenge
When I was at the "start" of my journey, I was working for a small group, doing some copywriting and then some ghostwriting. Most of my co-workers and the owner were at a meeting in NYC one September morning. I wasn't there because I was on a different assignment that day. I watched them die on national television. I took some odd jobs then, just trying to cope. And eventually, I met a special someone who I'd later marry. That's when I started writing again. Of course, all the contacts I had in publishing were dead. So I was, once again, no one. I sent query letters, but agents didn't understand the story I meant to tell. I decided to self-publish.
Where am I now? Scroll back up! I have the second book in the Existence series published as of yesterday. That's two novels, one short story, and two writer's reference books for sale. Plus this blog (which was restarted, twice, as platforms went under). And publication in some anthologies.
Please also visit: The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club on Goodreads.
yolandarenee.blogspot.com/2023/04/proof-of-existence-by-j-lenni-dorner.html Please check out the interview. Find a DARKER side of this urban fantasy.
https://etoithomas.com/iwsg-apr-2023-proof-of-existence-is-here/ IWSG - Don't miss this post!
Happening at OperationAwesome6.blogspot.com
Happening at the A to Z Challenge 
We'll, you can fix that issue now that the book is live. People should keep their distance (for their own safety) when I do the chicken dance...
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for D:
My Languishing TBR: D
Dichotomy of the Sasabonsam
and IWSG day If The Author’s Life Were a Fairy Tale
Congrats on your book release! I'm impressed you're doing the A-Z challenge while navigating your release. And no matter how careful we are, we all find mistakes in our manuscripts. At least, you can correct them later.
ReplyDeleteIt has since been fixed. I just can't believe I made that error. And more than once.
DeleteLike... I knew someone who used powered sugar instead of flour on chicken once, by mistake. (And no, it actually wasn't me!) I mean, it actually turned out tasty and now she makes it that way on purpose. BUT the point is, she double checks the white stuff in the jar now. I feel like I'm just tossing powdered sugar around the dang room and not even noticing it's not flour. 🤦🏽♂️
Omg those fake shutters. 🤮
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have noticed it in the book, probably.
I can't dance worth a damn, but I'd do the chicken dance.
Shake that booty anyway. Don't let them tell you that you can't.
DeleteIt's been a journey but look at you now - second book!
ReplyDeleteEvery house here has fake shutters. It would drive you nuts.
🔥
DeleteAre they at least hung evenly?
But honestly, why not have real ones? Where on our planet 🌎🌍🌏 are there no storms? A good shutter could save a window. That's why they made them back when there were normal storms. Now we've got weather centers debating increasing the storm category scale.
Anyway. Yup, second book in the series. Lost of scene for the next book written.
Grats on the book release!
ReplyDeleteMy house has fake shutters. But at least they match the height of the windows! (Not the width, though)
And are hung level? I mean, come on now. LOL.
DeleteThanks so much.
Yep. I've done the chicken dance many times. The most fun is when I do it for my Zany Birds story time at libraries and the little kids around me are doing it, too.
ReplyDeleteShag dancing isn't part of our traditions here but, if I think hard, I don't now which dance would be? I don't swing dance. I did the chicken dance last a long time ago. And then there's the Hokey Pokey, which I've done more times than I can remember. As for my house, no fake shutters here.
ReplyDeleteHokey Pokey, oh man.
DeleteThat's quite a tale to tell. A harder road than many of us, for sure. But you're doing great, look at all you've achieved. Although I'm sorry the upload window was shuttered before you could fix those errors. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha.
DeleteI don't know about shag dancing but I do love to dance. I wanted to learn swing but that is probably not going to happen now that the hubby has a bad back.
ReplyDeleteJanet’s Smiles
Yeah, it is certainly athletic.
DeleteWoohoo you go, I think you've accomplished a lot. Love the Shag dance. Congrats on new release!
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteOmg! I’m shuddering at the idea of trying the collegiate shag! Although the chicken dance looks quite fun. My house has fake shutters, too. Now I’m feeling the urge to go out and check if they line up. I think my neighbor’s looked lopsided the last time I checked.
ReplyDeleteIt’s been almost a decade since I started writing. I haven’t finished my novel(s) yet, but I’ve already published in several anthologies with my friends. My main goal is to write for myself, the second is to write the memoirs of my elders. I’ve found so much of my families, culture and idiosyncrasy while researching. ~🐮🦄
Visiting from: https://steampunkcowunicorn.wordpress.com/2023/04/09/d-is-for-dobbin-diablo/
Good goals.
Delete