Here’s a Story of a Story of a Mennonite Girl, and Have I got a Deal for You.

I have a warm place in my heart for the Here’s the story thing. I was a fan of the Brady Bunch way back when. That annoying little prelude, then the jingle and the tic-tac-toe portraits of the Brady’s popping onto the screen sent thrills pulsating through my veins. For me it was all about Marcia. Yes Jan, I know. It must have been very painful. I spent several years of my life wishing I could look like Marcia and dress like her and live in a house with a maid.

But that is really an aside. My story of a story will be brief. Okay maybe not, depending on your definition, but I’ll try. And it’s not about Marcia. FYI, the following could be deemed an infomercial, but oh well.

I wrote a story a few years ago. A writer (a real one, at a course I was taking), suggested it could be expanded, like into a book. So I started to write the book. Then I moved across the country, finished the book, and entered it into a contest, not expecting anything other than a critical analysis of the work, which was promised for the $35.00 entrance fee. A minor hitch was my submission was creative non-fiction, and the contest I entered, for some reason, was no longer accepting submissions in that category. It had, when I first found out about the competition. But I wanted the feedback, so in the box on the form I wrote: Novel, Adult fiction.

A few months later, as promised, I did get feedback. All of three judges stated that what I had submitted was clearly not fiction and it wasn’t a novel. But I got third prize. One of the judges approached me at the awards ceremony and expressed that it should be published.

That was lovely to hear, but easier said than done. It requires submission letter writing and I’m horrible at that. Not that I’ve actually tried, since it scares me. So I went with an emerging, ‘assisted self-publishing’ company. Some books were printed, some sold, but sadly the company went bankrupt—too much work for too few staff.  The experience was disappointing for that reason, and because there were a fair number of editing mistakes, punctuation missing, etc. And I ‘d wanted the book available on eBook, which hadn’t happened. The leftover books havebeen sitting in my basement for two years.

But here’s the thing.

My book, which was called Mennonite Girl, is cleaned up and available on eBook and print-on-demand at http://www.friesenpress.com.  This new and improved version is called Mennonite Girl at the Welcome Inn.

So that is the story of my story. Maybe you already read Mennonite Girl. If you did and you liked it, please tell your friends. It is available now on eBook for less than 5 bucks.

See the link, just here to the right. I suppose this is kind of an infomercial. But as my traveling light blog friend Colleen says, “Order what you want. Take what you get.” I like that fine as long as I don’t get served raisin pie.

Oh yes, I offered a deal. If you want an original print copy of Mennonite Girl (slightly flawed but highly readable), please write to me at saltwaterangels@eastlink.ca, and I’ll arrange to have one sent to you, right from my basement. All for the amazingly low cost of $12.00. Canadian funds. (That includes shipping if you live in North America). Please write ‘Mennonite girl’ in the subject line so I don’t delete you. If you want more than one, each additional copy is $8.00.  So two books is twenty bucks. Three books is $28.00 Delivered. OR get the eBook. Even less. Oh how I love good value.

And who knows? If we’re both really lucky, that book may become a collectors item. Because that is what I want.

But then again, I must remember,  “Order what you want…