Christina Nealson will be at Spruce Tree Coffeehouse in Cortez on Friday, Nov. 30, from 5 to 7 p.m. for a book signing and reading. Then she will be in Mancos at Kaleidoscope Wellness Center, 233 Park St., on Saturday, Dec. 1, from 1 to 3 p.m. to give a class.
The class will be called Going Indie An Introduction to Self-Publishing, and will involve an overview of her experiences with self-publishing. Anyone can show up to the class, and, for $10, will be able to get her insight on the pitfalls of self-publishing.
Her latest book, Drive Me Wild A Western Odyssey, is her third, but the first one that she has self-published.
When Im out giving talks and book readings, many people ask about self-publishing, she said. I just want to let people know about the options they have.
Nealson said that there are a lot of scammers out there and one just needs to be aware of all of them. There are advantages and disadvantages to self-publishing, she said, and the field is wide open.
But people can be misled, she said.
Nealson said she took some classes and she wants to pass along her knowledge.
So many people are sitting on a favorite poem or family stories. And they can self-publish for less than $1,000, she said.
From Mancos, she will be going to Taos and Santa Fe, N.M., and doing readings and signings there. Then she woll travel to Tucson, Bisbee and other southern Arizona towns
I enjoyed writing the book, she said. It went through many transitions. Id think it was done, and then it wasnt. That happens a lot. The elements had a real potent connection with the wild how these wild mothers kept showing up with their babies.
It wasnt just an RV trip, or a long vacation. It turned out to be a very potent message that was coming to me about the wild and our place in the planet.
Thats the heart of the book and it took a while for that to reveal itself.