As part of the marketing strategy for my new book, Miss Missy’s School: A Pack of Farm Dogs Starts a School, I’d like to introduce– or in some cases, reacquaint– you to Missy and Rocky. I’ll be posting several short short stories about them, and a character called ‘Marica,’ outside the context of the book. (Most have been previously published, though I have plans for some new content as well.) These are not excerpts from the book, but rather a look at who Missy, Rocky, and Marica are as they just hang out here on the farm.

A note about the art, below. This is a cropped selection of the very first sketch Daughter C drew long ago. She’s done many more since and I’ll share some of those works as we go along.

Please do feel free to hit the tip jar. As many of you know, I’m self-publishing. To do the book justice, I’m having it professionally formatted and am incurring other expenses as well. All contributions will go toward publication.

Marketing Strategy

Originally published on June 7, 2021 by Marica

Art work by Daughter C; Missy (L), Rocky (R)

“Hey, Missy? Do you have a minute?” Marica asked.

“Sure, Marica. What can I help you with?” Missy looked up from an enormous pile of open books on her desk.

“How’s your book doing?”

“Well,” said Missy, “I’ve still quite a number of researches to do, especially with regard to Purgatorio, but I’d say it’s coming along quite nicely, thanks for asking.”

“Ruff?” asked Rocky.

“Dear Friend, Marica asked how the book was doing and I answered,” Missy replied. “I don’t understand your confusion.”

“What are you talking about, Missy?” Marica echoed Rocky.

“My book. Tentatively titled– because I’ll not make that mistake again!– Veiled Virtues, though I haven’t yet worked out the Latin.”

“R.U.F.F.” Here we go again, thought Rocky. He had sorely hoped Missy’s attentions would be wholly consumed by Miss Missy’s School and her students, but apparently he was mistaken. “Ruff,” he said as he picked up his copy of The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories and headed into his box.

“Okay, Missy. Let me see if I have this straight. You’re writing another book?” Marica asked.

“Yes,” Missy replied. “Summer vacation affords me the opportunity to be very productive. Just like John.”

“That’s just wonderful! I’m looking forward to hearing more about it,” Marica said. “But I was asking about Vitiosus Canes, Virtutum Actus.”

“ruffruff,” Rocky grumbled from somewhere deep in his box. As he had said many times, he didn’t know what was wrong with plain spoken English. Vicious Dogs, Virtuous Acts sounded to him like a perfectly fine title. “ruffruff.”

“Oh my! How silly of me! I haven’t checked in a month or so. Let’s see,” Missy said as she opened her iDevise and put on her reading glasses. “My goodness! It’s doing wonderfully, Marica. Look at this! It’s #43 in Children’s Fantasy, right behind Where the Wild Things Are. Oh! And even better! It’s #15 in Children’s Classics, right behind The Hobbit. My Epic Novel is a classic!”

“Good heavens, Missy! You are in some amazing company!” Marica was truly impressed. She had, of course, read Missy’s book– and it was indeed an epic tale! But she thought not of the sort that would have garnered such popularity. “How did you do it?”

“RUFF!?!” Rocky was most impressed, too.

“Do what?”

“Sell so many books? Get so many readers? Engage so many people?” Marica asked. “What was your marketing strategy?”

“I’m not sure I had one, Marica. As you know my goal was not primarily to sell books, but rather to get my Epic Novel into the hands of as many of those poor dears who don’t care to read as possible. I would not have minded if only one-thousand copies had been sold, if those had been passed around one-hundred times,” Missy explained.

“But you must have done something! You’re self-published. Self-published books don’t find their way to the hands of thousands upon thousands of kids with no effort from the author at all,” Marica was astounded. Surly Missy had done something. “What’s your secret?”

“Well, Marica,” Missy sighed and thought for a moment. “I suppose the first thing I did was write a captivating tale that swept the dear children– and I imagine their grownups as well, as they are the ones buying the book– into a time and place wherein their souls could fly… ”

“It was a captivating tale,” Marica interrupted. “But once the book was written and published, what did you do?”

TO BE CONTINUED JUST AS SOON AS I FIGURE OUT WHAT MISSY DID.