Former Davis Square resident announces publication of her first novel

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

Former Davis Square resident Heather Albano is pleased to announce the publication of her first novel!

TIMEPIECE is a steampunk time travel adventure about a girl, a pocket watch, Frankenstein’s monster, the Battle of Waterloo, and giant clockwork robots taking over London - no, really - and it was largely written in Davis Square coffee shops!

Download it for your Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Timepiece-ebook/dp/B005QD0TGG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317661582&sr=8-1

Download it for your Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/timepiece-heather-albano/1106037183?ean=2940013366398&itm=1&usri=heather%2balbano

Or download it for pretty much every e-reader format that exists, as well as pdf, plain text, and html: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93451

It is 99 cents on all platforms.

For more information about Heather's creative projects, go to http://www.heatheralbano.com

Comments

[ron_newman]

Which coffee shops did you write it in?

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

My favorite is the diesel. I guess Blue Shirt and Mr. Crepe aren't technically coffee shops, but I like them too. Which is yours?

[ron_newman]

I buy most of my coffee at Mr. Crepe so I do consider it a coffee shop (especially since it replaced another one at the same site, the Someday). Blue Shirt, not so much.

You describe yourself as a "former" Davis Square resident. Are you still in the greater Camberville/Somerbridge area?

[ifotismeni]

blogs say she's in portland, maine

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

I live out near Worcester now, but because I work for myself and have many friends in the greater Camberville area, tend to spend one day a week or so hanging out here working during the day and seeing friends in the evening. Doing it *right this minute*, in fact. :)

Arisia has a group on LJ

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

Have you considered posting about your novel there? Being a boston SF/F con, it would likely be of interest to folks there...

Re: Arisia has a group on LJ

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

Oh, great idea. Thanks! Will add to to-do list.

[cerridwynn.livejournal.com]

You guys should read this! Seriously -- it's beautifully written and just so much fun*!

*Okay, i'm only about half done -- but i'm having trouble putting it down!

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm a luddite: any chance I could walk into a bookstore and buy it as a book?

And for the record, I generally call it The Diesel, although not exclusively, I don't think. That conversation reminds me of my observation that people who live in the west coast put "the" in front of their highways: "take the 101."

SPRANE YOUR BRANE

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

I'm going to take the 2 to Somerville and drink at Diesel's.

Re: SPRANE YOUR BRANE

[42itous.livejournal.com]

ow, my brain!

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

There was a moment in Gilmore Girls when they said "take the 95" and that was the moment that I realized it was filmed on a set in California rather than in a little town in Connecticut.

And then Rory had to start talking about "The Providence Journal-Bulletin"...

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I had a history teacher in high school who called it the Providence Urinal. :)

[ron_newman]

Wikipedia claims that the ProJo was called the Journal-Bulletin from 1992 to 1998. Was the show set during this time period?

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

"any chance I could walk into a bookstore and buy it as a book?"

Not this one, I'm afraid. Maybe someday. I couldn't possibly charge 99 cents if there was physical overhead to consider.

But smashwords.com has it in pdf form, as well as html and plain text. You don't need an e-reader - your computer will do fine.

[squirrelitude]

Yay! I refuse to buy DRM'd books. Thanks for releasing in open formats too!

[ron_newman]

Are you related to Sal Albano who used to be the state senator for Somerville?

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

Nope, not as far as I know. Nor to Captain Lou, which is what I'm usually asked, nor to the Joseph Albano who ran the Albano School of Dance in CT when I was a kid. Though we did get great seats at The Nutcracker that one year, probably because the lady at the box office assumed we were family! :)

[perich.livejournal.com]

e-publishing! Awesome!

(That's all I got)

[cos]

Third person makes this post read more like a press release than a LiveJournal post. Like, you hired a publicist to post on LJ for you or something. But from the comments, it looks like it's actually you operating this account, so I'm curious: why the press-release-ish third person posting?

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

Hm, interesting question. I don't know that I thought about it in quite that way.

Well, I do in fact have a background in marketing - have written a great many press releases over my professional career - and it seems to me to be the cleanest way to get across the information. "I have a novel! My name's Heather Albano, I wrote a novel about the following things, you can get it at the following links, and this is relevant to the community because I used to live in Davis Square and in fact still come write in coffeeshops" is quite a few more words, so the risk of "burying the lead" is greater. I suppose, given that the lj handle is in fact my name, I could say "I" and still assume I had given folks enough information to search on if they wanted to, but I defaulted to following the general rule of minimizing the steps between the potential customer and the data they want. Were you thinking first-person would be more accessible, or something along those lines? If so, that may be worth thinking about for the next time I do this. (Timekeeper, which I am writing now... :) )

[cos]

First person, and perhaps *slightly* more wordy, would fit in to the social conventions of the forum in which you're posting. On LiveJournal, reading something that seems like a press release is a bit jarring, and probably makes many readers suspect it of being spam or otherwise not legitimate. In that way, I think you didn't meet your goal, but rather put a barrier between you and the people you wanted to reach.

[ron_newman]

I agree with cos. If you are promoting something that is your own work -- a book, a performance, an art exhibit, etc. -- it's best to speak conversationally in the first person. Mentioning your connection to Davis Square, if you aren't well-known here, is also helpful.

[scottxwl.livejournal.com]

Good evening,

I bought this book on the day you made this post, but because of a backlog of readings, I did not finish it until today. I had an interesting comparison/contrast to make. Well, interesting to me. Just before reading 'Timepiece,' I read 'Ready Player One,' which several of my friends, and everyone on the internet, seems to be raving about. I finished that novel perplexed by its popularity. Other than wall to wall nostalgia, I do not know what I was supposed to get out of it. There were major plot holes, barely two dimensional characters, and boring "action" sequences. And the world is celebrating it. Today, I just finished your novel, which I purchased for 99 cents, and has three dimensional characters, a well thought out and crafted story, and tense scenes with high stakes. YOU should be receiving at least half the accolades that Ernest Cline is getting.

Well done.

[heatheralbano.livejournal.com]

Goodness, thank you. You just made my day! So glad you liked it!

Working on the sequel now. :)