Just like that, July has come and gone.

It started out with a bang as I got word that Once Upon a Mulberry Field was named the Grand Prize Winner of the 2014 annual book contest sponsored by LuckyCinda Publishing in Palm Desert, California. A social media push soon followed in order to spread the good news, and during that stretch I learned a great deal about social-media marketing in general and book promotion in particular. Besides the technical dos-and-don’ts, the take-away from all that activity is—duh—it’s awfully hard to pinpoint a magic-bullet approach that would guarantee success in every single case. What seems to work for one book doesn’t necessarily work for another, and it will take a bunch of trial and error and a bit of good luck to finally hit on the right answer for you and your book.

In terms of concrete results, Once Upon a Mulberry Field has been picked up by a couple of book clubs and is being considered by a couple others. Last weekend I was invited to my first book club meeting to join its members in their discussion of my book, and it was a blast! I very much enjoyed the casual setting (in a coffee shop), the lively interaction with back-and-forth exchange instead of me giving a formal presentation, and mostly the fact that the book club’s members had read the book and were asking relevant questions and giving me direct feedback. The long drive notwithstanding, I look forward to many more book club meetings in the future.

To round out the month, last Monday author Raymond Bolton posted on his blog a very nice interview he had done with me earlier. As always, his interview was in depth regarding my journey with Once Upon a Mulberry Field. I enjoyed his excellent questions, especially in the rapid-fire questions-and-answers segment, so much so I almost completely slipped into monosyllabic answers toward the end! Sorry about that, Raymond.

To read Raymond’s interview in full, click here.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of your summer!