End of the month CQ updates
A brief interview/Q&A that includes some of my thoughts on writing and books can be found at
http://redletterpress.googlepages.com/carmellabroome
There's a picture of me and Maggie on that page, as well.
The North Augusta Star recently featured a brief blurb about Carmella's Quest in its "Stars Among Us" section. That can be found at:
www.aikenstandard.com/star/Soc-0514-BLIND-AUTHOR
It reads:
Blind BI native now published
Licensed professional counselor Carmella Broome, who has been legally blind since birth and who grew up in Beech Island, recently launched her first book.
After graduating from Silver Bluff High School in 1994, Carmella became a freshman at North Greenville College in Tigerville. Her first book, Carmella's Quest: Taking on College Sight Unseen, tells the story of her first-year college experiences -- her efforts to adjust to college life and academics, friendships and romantic relationships, struggles accepting her visual limitations.
The book is published by and available through Red Letter Press of Columbia.
There was also an announcement in the March/April issue of "What's Happening Out There," a newsletter for parents and service providers caring for blind children in Colorado. I happened to run across that in a google search earlier today. Cool.
In the same search, I discovered that my friend James Moore, from Columbia Bible College, promoted my book on his MySpace blog. I'm honored that James took the time to read the book and appreciate his friendship and interest in my writing. He's got links there to press releases, the YouTube video, this blog, and the Amazon page. Thanks, James! You're an awesome friend.
His blog is at:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=29860562&blogId=481215143
The articles from the Lexington Chronicle are now available as .pdf downloads.
The first one can be found at
www.lexingtonchronicle.com/clients/lexingtonchronicle/04092009PageA14.pdf
and the follow-up piece can be found at
www.lexingtonchronicle.com/clients/lexingtonchronicle/04162009PageA14.pdf
My neighbor, Hazel Hawkins, who bought a copy of CQ when Mom and I were searching the building for electric mixers a couple weeks ago, left a very sweet message on my answering machine yesterday saying how much she enjoyed the book. I thought that was really nice.
Another long-time neighbor bought a copy from me on Friday. About five years ago, he was working at an AM talk radio station that had just started up here in Columbia. I actually did two interviews. One was about the statewide guide dog users group I was president of at the time. My boyfriend Jason drove me there at 5:30 one morning for that one. The other was about sensitivity to blindness. We did that one by phone thankfully. He said he loves to read. I wouldn't have guessed that about him but certainly hope he enjoys the book.
I'll be in the TBS recording studio again this coming Tuesday. We've got about 100 pages left to do. This may be the week where I read the "answering machine scene." This scene is specifically referred to in the review of CQ provided in the ACB Friends in Art newsletter. The newsletter is linked to at the top of the "Story of a Book Entry" I recently posted. I'm already preparing to be embarrassed. The recording is monitorred by two very professional and gentlemanly State Library employees of the male variety, but I've joked around about recording that particular part before. They say they're looking forward to hearing it. I'd better get busy practicing.