Tag: deployment

0 25% off (finally!) all four books in the Since You Went Away series

November 16, 2022
by Nan McCarthy
· Blog · Books · fiction · Publishing · self-publishing · Writing

It only took 168 hours but a certain large retailer finally updated the sale prices

Remember the Veterans Day sale that was supposed to happen last week but didn’t because my price discounts weren’t taking effect at a certain online bookstore? Well, the prices were finally discounted… two days after the sale was scheduled to end. Since the sale never happened I had planned to go back into my publisher dashboard and raise the prices back to their regular amounts. But instead of doing that I’ve decided to keep the 25% discount in place for now and extend the sale through Thanksgiving. Because why not? So from now until midnight on Black Friday (November 25th), you can buy all four books in the series (either print or ebook) for 25% off the regular price. My loss is your gain! (Or, to put it another way, one large bookseller’s incompetence is your gain.)

This is the first time since the books’ publication that all four books in the series are being discounted. (Usually I only discount Part One, with the idea of reeling in new readers, who then purchase the next three books in the series ’cuz they can’t wait to find out what happens next.) This means you can get all four paperbacks for under forty bucks or all four ebooks for under twenty bucks. Whether you’re shopping for yourself or your favorite reader, the epistolary-style format of the Since You Went Away series has been known to keep readers turning pages late into the night. And the covers are pretty nice too.

An update of the 1944 film of the same name (& 1943 book the film was based on), this slice-of-life dramedy charts a year in the life of a modern-day military family during deployment. Featuring a deeply human cast of characters and propelled by a plot that draws you in from the first page, Since You Went Away portrays in intimate detail the effects of a distant war on the families and returning veterans at home.

“While most war stories focus on the drama on the battlefield, McCarthy shines a light on the battles being fought on the homefront, creating a world that’s eminently relatable to readers both inside and outside the military.”

***

This offer is available exclusively on Amazon—worldwide wherever Amazon books are sold—through midnight November 25th only.

Click here to order the Since You Went Away series in either paperback or ebook.

about the author:

A former magazine editor and tech journalist, Nan McCarthy founded Rainwater Press in 1992 and began selling her books online in 1995. She is the author of the Chat, Connect, Crash series (fiction), the Since You Went Away series (fiction), Live ’Til I Die (memoir), and Quark Design (non-fiction). Nan and her husband, a veteran who served 29 years in the Marine Corps, live in Kansas City.

Since You Went Away, Part One: Winter

(Rainwater Press, 2017) 172 pages

ISBN-13 (print): 978-1888354126

F I C T I O N, epistolary, literary, family life, war

Since You Went Away, Part Two: Spring

(Rainwater Press, 2017) 226 pages

ISBN-13 (print): 978-1888354133

F I C T I O N, epistolary, literary, family life, war

Since You Went Away, Part Three: Summer

(Rainwater Press, 2019) 216 pages

ISBN-13 (print): 978-1888354140

F I C T I O N, epistolary, literary, family life, war

Since You Went Away, Part Four: Fall

(Rainwater Press, 2020) 308 pages

ISBN-13 (print): 978-1888354157

F I C T I O N, epistolary, literary, family life, war

Cover design for all four books by David J. High, Highdzn.com.

Cover art illustrations by Larry Jacobsen (Part One), Jut / Dreamstime (Part Two), Greylilac & Jboy / Shutterstock (Part Three), and Radiocat, Rudall30, Lana, Samcorp, & Kevin Sanderson / Shutterstock (Part Four).

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1 Kinda pissed at a certain online bookstore right now

November 12, 2022
by Nan McCarthy
· Blog · Books · fiction · Publishing · self-publishing · Writing

Plans to offer my annual Veterans Day book discount didn’t pan out this year and here’s why

Here’s how the promo for my 2022 Veterans Day discount was supposed to start: “From now until midnight November 11th, readers can purchase the entire Since You Went Away series for 25% off both print and ebook editions.” Except I wasn’t able to run the promo this year, because a certain large online bookstore somehow wasn’t able to lower the print price of my books—even though I’ve been offering the same Veterans Day discount almost every year since 2017, when the first book in the series was published.

As a small business owner and independent author, I depend on promotions like this to get the word out about my books. Especially for my Since You Went Away series—a fictionalized story about a modern-day military family—Veterans Day is the ultimate tie-in opportunity to draw attention to the series and, if I’m lucky, see a nice little bump in sales. And to be honest, as an indie author, spreading the word about my books is an uphill battle. I’m not getting rich here, and I’m okay with that. I love what I do and I love being an author who publishes my own books. I’ve had my books published traditionally by one of the Big Five publishers (or are we down to the Big Four now—it’s hard to keep track these days), and I can tell you from hard-earned experience that being an indie author is way more fun than going the traditional route. And at this stage in my life, I’ll choose self-agency and fun over group think and bureaucracy any day of the week.

But even indie publishing has its limits, because as self-publishers we still (mostly) rely on other vendors to distribute and sell our books. Even today in the age of social media and online bookstores, our success is often determined by our ability to work the system. In many ways self-publishing today is harder than it was 27 years ago, when I self-published my first book in 1995. Back then there was no Instagram, no Facebook, no Twitter, no WordPress, and definitely no such thing as an ebook. (In fact in those days if you mentioned the word Amazon, most people thought you were talking about a river in South America.) But the widespread availability of such technology—like social media that makes it easier for authors to broadcast our latest book news to the world, and ebook sites that make creating books more accessible than ever—is also the very thing that makes it harder to get noticed, because we are now competing with millions of others across the globe trying to get our work in front of potential readers.

But I digress. The point is, you can’t run a promotion for discounted books if the books aren’t discounted. And therein lies the problem. This past Monday morning leading up to Veterans Day (which fell on a Friday this year), I logged onto my sales dashboard at a certain online bookseller to lower the price of my Since You Went Away series in anticipation of kicking off my annual promotion at some point mid-week. Since this particular retailer quotes various timelines of 24-72 hours to allow for price changes to take effect (and in the preceding five years of my experience with this retailer, price changes invariably took less than 24 hours), I believed I had allowed plenty of time for even the most gigantic retailer on earth to make a simple price change. Or so I thought.

For indie authors, running a book promotion is not as simple as logging onto a sales dashboard and changing a price. There’s the blog post (like this one was supposed to be) announcing the promotion featuring book blurbs, graphics, and links to the various retail sites. Then there are the social media posts, which can be based on your original blog copy but need to be tailored to each site’s word limit, photo specs, audience, and overall “vibe.” If you’re detail-obsessed like me, you spend a lot of time writing, editing, and tweaking each individual post to make sure it optimizes such an important promo opportunity without needlessly flooding other people’s social media feeds and end up annoying or alienating potential readers rather than attracting them.

I won’t bore you with the gory details on how much time I spent this past week emailing, live chatting, and phoning customer support trying to figure out why the prices for the paperback versions of Since You Went Away weren’t being discounted on this particular site as requested. The prices on the ebook versions of the series were updated in less than 12 hours, so it was puzzling that the print prices were taking so long to update. And as of today (six days later—the day after Veterans Day and twelve hours after the sale was scheduled to end) the paperback prices still haven’t been discounted. So I gave up on this year’s promotion. It’s not about the lost sales really. It’s not even about missing this once-a-year opportunity to share my books with people who might like to know about them. For me, it’s a reminder that as much as I love being my own boss and running my own business and hiring cover designers and editors of my own choosing, I’m not as much the master of my own fate as I thought I was, even when it comes to writing and publishing my own books.

Funny thing is, I’m not as upset about this stupid price debacle as I thought I’d be. Yeah, I was hella frustrated this week trying to deal with customer service people who say they value your business and want to solve your problem but do absolutely nothing to actually solve said problem. We’ve all been there, done that a million times over, right? First world problems as they say.

BUT… there’s that teeny-tiny part of me that’s still kinda pissed off about the whole thing, you know? The part of me that rails at big business stomping on the little guy because they can or they just don’t care. Whether you’re a musician or painter or sculptor or comedian or—yes—a writer who either can’t get past industry gatekeepers or chooses not to submit themselves to faceless corporate sales forces, you have to make the decision, every single day of your career, to not let the bastards get you down (as my mom used to say). To keep fighting the good fight. I may have lost this particular battle with earth’s biggest bookstore, but I’ll never stop writing, never stop creating, never stop sharing my work with others. And because of this experience, I’m even more motivated than ever to find new and different ways to promote and sell my books and reach new readers. Like adding an online store to this website for example. These things take time, so I ask you to stay tuned. Meanwhile, I’m going to nurture that small part of me that’s still kinda pissed off. Because sometimes you have to listen to that little voice inside your head. The one that says fuck you to the fucking fuckers.

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0 Wondering what to read this July 4th weekend?

July 1, 2021
by Nan McCarthy
· Blog · Family · Military life

Since You Went Away: Part One 25% off (print) & 50% off (ebook)

Most war stories focus on the drama on the battlefield. Since You Went Away shines a light on the battles being fought on the homefront, portraying in intimate detail the effects of a distant war on the families and returning veterans at home. Featuring a deeply human cast of characters and propelled by a plot that accelerates with each turn of the page, McCarthy creates a world that’s eminently relatable to readers both inside and outside the military.

Written by a military spouse (now a vet spouse), this fly-on-the-wall account of a fictional modern-day military family lifts the curtain on the most challenging and emotional period in the lives of those who serve and those who love them: deployment. With jaw-dropping plot twists, McCarthy spins a tale as humorous as it is heartbreaking. Readers will find themselves immediately drawn into the realistic yet entertaining orbit of the Mahoney family, turning pages late into the night.

From now until midnight July 5th, you can purchase Part One of the Since You Went Away series (print) for only $8.20 (normally $10.95 on Amazon & $14.95 in bookstores). Or download the ebook version on Amazon for only $2.99 (normally $5.99).

The story of military life is lived by only a small percentage of Americans. This July 4th, immerse yourself in the lives of the Mahoney family. Find out what military life is really like—not through the eyes of those on the battlefield, but through the eyes of their families back home, who keep watch and wait.

Offer available exclusively on Amazon, through midnight July 5th only.

Click here to order the paperback.

Click here to order the ebook.

about the author:

Nan McCarthy is the author of the Since You Went Away series, the Chat, Connect, Crash series, Live ’Til I Die, and Quark Design. Before her career as a writer, Nan was the editor of an English-language magazine in Japan, the managing editor of a computer-industry magazine in Chicago, and a contributing editor to several design- and technology-related publications. She founded Rainwater Press in 1992 and began selling her books online in 1995. Nan and her husband, a veteran who served 33 years in the Marine Corps, are the proud parents of two adult sons.

Since You Went Away, Part One: Winter

Nan McCarthy

(Rainwater Press, 2017) 172 pages

F I C T I O N

Part Two: Spring, Part Three: Summer, and Part Four: Fall now available!

cover design by David High.

cover art by Larry Jacobsen.

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1 Since You Went Away, Part Four: Fall

November 13, 2020
by Nan McCarthy
· Books · Family · fiction · Military life · Since You Went Away (Part Four: Fall) · Titles

Since You Went Away, Part Four: Fall
Nan McCarthy
(Rainwater Press, 2020) 308 pages
F I C T I O N

In the spectacular conclusion to her Since You Went Away quartet, Nan McCarthy delivers jaw-dropping plot twists that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. McCarthy deftly weaves multiple plot threads with surprising reveals until the very last page, wrapping up each character’s storyline with a heart-stirring, satisfying finale.

Set against the backdrop of the Iraq war in the year 2008 and featuring a deeply human cast of characters, readers will find themselves immediately drawn into the realistic yet entertaining orbit of the Mahoney family. While most war stories focus on the drama on the battlefield, Since You Went Away shines a light on the battles being fought on the homefront, lifting the curtain on the most challenging and emotional period in the life of a military family: deployment. Suspenseful and surprisingly funny, McCarthy creates a world that’s eminently relatable to readers both inside and outside the military.

Propelled by a plot that accelerates with each book in the series, Since You Went Away portrays in intimate detail the effects of a distant war on the families and returning veterans at home. At once poignant and darkly funny, it is a fly-on-the-wall account of the innermost workings of a military family—their fears and hopes, their struggles and disappointments, their unexpected moments of joy and comfort and laughter.

This is Part Four of a novel released in four parts.

N O W A V A I L A B L E

Click on this link to order the paperback.

Click one of these to order the ebook.

The Since You Went Away series is now available from bookstores, libraries, & other retailers via Ingram distribution. Ask for the book by name at your local bookseller or library.

Due to ongoing technical issues at Barnes & Noble, the nook version of Since You Went Away is not yet available.

about the author:

Nan McCarthy is the author of the Since You Went Away series, Chat, Connect, & Crash, Live ‘Til I Die, and Quark Design. The Chat, Connect & Crash series, originally self-published, was acquired by Simon & Schuster and published in trade paperback in 1998. Nan regained the rights to the series and released new editions in 2014. A former magazine editor & technology writer, Nan founded Rainwater Press in 1992 and began selling her books online in 1995. Nan and her husband, a veteran who served 29 years in the Marine Corps, are the proud parents of two adult sons. Nan wrote Since You Went Away after taking a ten-year break from full-time writing to care for the family during her husband’s frequent military travels.

Cover design & illustration by David J. High, highdzn.com

Interior design by Kevin Callahan, BNGObooks.com + David J. High

Cover art from Shutterstock illustrations by rudall30, Radiocat, Lana_Samcorp, & Kevin Sanderson

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0 Buy: Since You Went Away (Part Four: Fall)

November 13, 2020
by Nan McCarthy
· Books · fiction · Shop · Since You Went Away (Part Four: Fall)

Since You Went Away, Part Four: Fall by Nan McCarthy (Rainwater Press, 2020) is now available from these booksellers:

Click on this link to order the paperback.

Click one of these to order the ebook.

New!The Since You Went Awayseries is now available from bookstores, libraries, & other retailers via Ingram distribution. Ask for the book by name at your local bookseller or library.

Due to ongoing technical issues at Barnes & Noble, the nook version of Since You Went Away is not yet available.

Follow this blog to be the first to receive updates about new books in the series.

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0 Looking for a way to honor veterans & celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday?

November 6, 2020
by Nan McCarthy
· Blog · Family · Military life

Since You Went Away: Part One now 25% off (print) & 50% off (ebook)

Honor our veterans and celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday this year by immersing yourself in the story of a modern-day military family. While most war stories focus on the drama on the battlefield, Since You Went Away shines a light on the battles being fought on the homefront. Suspenseful and surprisingly funny, Nan McCarthy creates a world that’s eminently relatable to readers both inside and outside the military.

From now until midnight November 11th, you can purchase Part One of the Since You Went Away series (print) for only $5.95 (normally $7.95 on Amazon & $14.95 in bookstores). Or download the ebook version on Amazon for only $1.99 (normally $3.99).

Set against the backdrop of the Iraq war in the year 2008, Since You Went Away lifts the curtain on the most challenging and emotional period in the life of a military family: deployment. Featuring jaw-dropping plot twists and a deeply human cast of characters, readers will find themselves immediately drawn into the realistic yet entertaining orbit of the Mahoney family, turning pages late into the night.

This offer is available exclusively on Amazon, through midnight November 11th only. Instead of thanking a veteran on Veterans Day, give yourself a chance to view the world through their eyes—and through the eyes of their families back home, who keep watch and wait.

Click here to order the paperback.

Click here to order the ebook.

about the author:

Nan McCarthy is the author of the Since You Went Away series, Chat, Connect, & Crash, Live ‘Til I Die, and Quark Design. A former magazine editor & tech journalist, Nan founded Rainwater Press in 1992 and began selling her books online in 1995. Nan and her husband, a veteran who served 29 years in the Marine Corps, are the proud parents of two adult sons. Nan wrote Since You Went Away after taking a ten-year break from full-time writing to care for the family during her husband’s frequent military travels.

Cover design by David High.

Cover art by Larry Jacobsen.

Since You Went Away, Part One: Winter
Nan McCarthy
(Rainwater Press, 2017) 172 pages
F I C T I O N
Part Two: Spring and Part Three: Summer now available. Part Four: Fall available later this month!

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2 I’m not a fan of surprise military reunion videos and here’s why

February 6, 2020
by Nan McCarthy
· Blog · Family · Military life

As the spouse of a vet who served 29 years in the Marine Corps, I’m not a fan of surprise deployment reunions, and I’m especially not a fan of surprise reunions that are filmed for public consumption.

Nan McCarthy

A lot of great conversations are happening on social media right now as a result of the surprise reunion at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. Military spouses are speaking out on Facebook and Twitter and blog posts about their personal experiences with deployment reunions, which can be awkward and uncomfortable and stressful even when they’re not a surprise and / or being filmed on national TV. Just this morning The Washington Post published an article by Alex Horton on this very topic, quoting military spouse Rebekah Sanderlin, whose funny, sad, intimate, and powerful tweets on military reunions have so far received thousands of likes and hundreds of retweets.

As the spouse of a vet who served 29 years in the Marine Corps, and as a writer who’s been closely following issues related to military family life for more than a decade now, I’m happy to see this conversation taking place and gaining traction among the general public. And while I’m not a fan of surprise deployment reunions—and I’m especially not a fan of surprise reunions that are filmed for public consumption—I see only good things coming from the current conversation that’s happening as result of a nationally televised military reunion viewed by millions of Americans. It’s an excellent opportunity to draw the curtain and invite non-military families to learn more about what it’s like to love someone who happens to be in the military.

Surprise reunions are hard on military kids, especially younger ones. During a deployment, according to another Washington Post article by Tara Swords, military kids live in a constant state of heightened anxiety and experience a higher rate of emotional problems compared to their friends from non-military families. Explains child psychologist and retired Army general Stephen Xenakis (as quoted in the above WP article), even if their deployed parent is serving at a relatively safe forward operating base—in a non-combat-capacity—that distinction is difficult for younger kids to grasp. They do grasp that something terrible could happen to their deployed parent. Surprising already anxious kids in front of television cameras—even for a positive moment such as a reunion—only adds to their anxiety.

Surprise reunion videos sugarcoat and romanticize military life. They give the false impression that life magically returns to normal the moment the service member comes home. Yes, reunions are incredibly joyful, but they are also incredibly stressful, even for the adults.

While many veterans and military families adjust pretty well after a deployment, the reality for the military population at large is often darker and scarier than most people realize. Even I was caught off guard by the months-long struggles that ensued after my husband’s last deployment to Iraq in 2008, and he’d been in the military 26 years at that point.

Reunion videos gloss over the fact that once a deployed service member returns, in many cases their challenges are only just beginning. Deployments change people—both the service members and their families. Sometimes these changes are positive, but oftentimes they are not. Military families face higher divorce rates. Many veterans encounter unemployment, homelessness, and mental health issues including suicide (not to mention other serious health challenges as a result of physical injuries, including lost limbs and traumatic brain injury).

I don’t judge military families who like surprise reunions. I don’t judge people who like surprise reunion videos—they make me cry too. I would like to see more education and support for military families and veterans—not only during deployments & homecomings, but after the dust has settled, when service members and the people who love them are struggling to put their lives back together. If you’re interested in learning more about how to support veterans and military families, here are just a few of my favorite charitable organizations with military-related missions: Blue Star Families, Team Rubicon, Semper Fi Fund, Heart of America Stand-down.

On a final note, as Horton makes clear in his Washington Post article, let’s remember and honor the Gold Star Families who’d give anything to see their service member come home, no matter the circumstances.

(These photos were taken in 2008 at the end of my husband’s 2-week leave, midway through his 13-month deployment to Iraq. We were standing in front of our house at zero dark-thirty getting ready to make the dreaded trip back to the airport)

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1 Buy: Since You Went Away (Part Three: Summer)

September 24, 2019
by Nan McCarthy
· Books · fiction · Shop · Since You Went Away (Part Three: Summer)

Since You Went Away, Part Three: Summer by Nan McCarthy (Rainwater Press, 2019) is now available from these booksellers:

Click on this link to order the paperback.

Click one of these to order the ebook.

New!The Since You Went Awayseries is now available from bookstores, libraries, & other retailers via Ingram distribution. Ask for the book by name at your local bookseller or library.

Follow this blog to be the first to receive updates about new books in the series.

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0 Buy: Since You Went Away (Part Two: Spring)

September 24, 2019
by Nan McCarthy
· Books · fiction · Shop · Since You Went Away (Part Two: Spring)

Since You Went Away, Part Two: Spring by Nan McCarthy (Rainwater Press, 2017) is now available from these online booksellers:

Click one of these to order the ebook.

Click CreateSpace to order the paperback.

Follow this blog to be the first to receive updates about new books in the series.

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0 Since You Went Away, Part Three: Summer

September 24, 2019
by Nan McCarthy
· Books · Family · fiction · Military life · Since You Went Away (Part Three: Summer) · Titles

Since You Went Away, Part Three: Summer
Nan McCarthy
(Rainwater Press, 2019) 216 pages
F I C T I O N

School’s out but the Mahoney family’s summer is anything but lazy. As they inch closer to the halfway point of Liam’s year-long deployment to Iraq, tensions heighten each time he goes outside the wire, challenging Emilie’s ability to keep it together. Meanwhile Finn and Rory find themselves in some unorthodox situations, providing comic relief for the makeshift family Emilie has assembled in Liam’s absence.

Wade and Isabel’s marriage is on the rocks again, even as Wade makes strides toward personal recovery with the help of the VA and a strong support network. Aunt Dottie’s boyfriend Joey struggles with retirement as his memories of the Vietnam War and a troubled past resurface. Danger closes in on Fakhir’s family in Baghdad as they anxiously await their visas. Unexpected events prompt Fakhir to confide in Emilie, revealing his secrets one morsel at a time. And when it comes to secrets, Agnes shares some whoppers that blow everyone’s preconceptions to pieces.

Propelled by a plot that accelerates with each turn of the page, Since You Went Away portrays in intimate detail the effects of a distant war on the families and returning veterans at home. At once poignant and darkly funny, it is a fly-on-the-wall account of the innermost workings of a military family—their fears and hopes, their struggles and disappointments, their unexpected moments of joy and comfort and laughter.

This is Part Three of a novel released in four parts.

C O M I N G S O O N: Part Four: Fall.

about the author:

Cover design by David J. High, High Design.

Cover art by GreyLilac (lily pads & flower) + JBOY (dragonflies) / Shutterstock.

Click on this link to order the paperback.

Click one of these to order the ebook.

New! The Since You Went Away series is now available from bookstores, libraries, & other retailers via Ingram distribution. Ask for the book by name at your local bookseller or library.

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