It’s time once again for my annual end of the year post about my career and favorite books I’ve read. |
The only writing I did was to take a thirty-year-old old fantasy novel manuscript that I wrote back in my twenties that I only have one copy of – on paper – and slowly began to type it into my computer. I revised it as I went, so I guess that counts for some creative writing. Then, I uploaded 10 “episodes” of it onto Kindle Vella, with the intention of putting the whole thing up there. |
Alas, after getting those episodes up, and before I could enter the first episode that would actually require purchased tokens to read, Amazon made the decision to cancel Kindle Vella. So, I quickly gave up that activity, and the book still lingers mostly unfinished on my computer and dangerously in a stack of paper. Will I ever go back to it? Probably not any time soon. If you’re curious, you can still read this story until February. Where I stopped leaves it on a happy, if unresolved ending.
While I’ve had some moments over the past year where I longed to go back to finish writing projects I abandoned or start new ideas, I haven’t regretted my decision to quit writing. That world is over-saturated with indie authors now, and I hate the AI influence on the book world. Also, I simply don’t have the energy to constantly make TikTok videos to sell myself to the world, because it’s clear that authors have to be pretty entertaining and/or fascinating people to get readers interested in buying their book. And now TikTok is probably going away, and I'd have to start all over on another app? No thanks.
I did have a few new friends discover my writing this year and champion it. That is always lovely. I also had a lot of people sign up to review my 2023 YA fantasy novel release Dragon Surf for the upcoming January 2025 Multicultural Children’s Book Day event, so hopefully I’ll have some new good reviews to share.
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On the happy side of things, the theater where I serve as Managing Administrator has had a wonderful year! The Keeton celebrated it’s 20th anniversary in May, and we are halfway through our 21st season. Our shows The Music Man, Footloose, and A Christmas Story the Musical sold out every single performance. In October, we found out that we were voted 3rd Place in “Best Place to See a Play” in the Nashville Scene Best of Nashville 2024 Awards. That was super exciting.
I worked directly with every show this calendar year either directing, costuming or performing - except for A Christmas Story, where I was able to be hands off. My daughter and her fiancé directed Noises Off for us back in April, and it was absolutely hilarious. I was so proud of them! My husband continues to build us gorgeous sets for the shows, and my stepdaughter has choreographed at least one show a year to great raves.
I got a new job this year. I left my teaching position, where I had been for almost 19 years, and took a new position as Program Manager for FiftyForward LaVergne Senior Center. I love it! Although, between this job and managing the theater, I feel like I spend all my time planning. I never know what day it is anymore, because my brain is a month or two in the future already.
Looking ahead, it’s going to be a big year for my family. My daughter is getting married in May! We’ll be getting in the thick of planning all of that soon, too!
According to Goodreads, I read 46 books this year. As usual, the majority of books I consumed were audiobooks. My work commute is shorter, so it’s taken me a bit longer to get through some of the long ones. I haven’t had as much energy or time to physically read this year. I keep falling asleep holding my Kindle.
I found myself still moving away from young adult titles. I read a few, but there were only a couple I thoroughly enjoyed. Although, I did read my own Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy series all the way through, which was fun. I hadn’t read them all in row like that before, and I haven’t read Cry of the Sea from beginning to end since 2014, the year it was published. (My previous post is all about that series, I why I was revisiting them.)
Here’s this year’s list!
Favorite Big Publisher Book of the Year: The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson. This book skirts the edge of being a young adult and new adult novel, as one of the main characters is in high school, while the other is in college. It’s a historical novel set in the early 1950s where two young black women are living very different lives that become connected through a facility that takes unwed teenagers and houses them until they give birth. It was a powerful story that had me following every word. Two different narrators read the audiobook as the chapters bounced back and forth between them. I highly recommend this book. |
Favorite Indie or Small Press Book of the Year: The Power of Three by Teri Polen. This is by far my favorite book by this author yet. It is also YA, and it’s a great ghost story. It’s absolutely perfect for Halloween season, and I think anyone who likes a solid haunted house story will enjoy it. I also loved that the main characters are three brothers with very different personalities who all come together like a team to fight off the evil spirit cursing their family. |
Most Surprising Book: The Long Walk by Stephen King. Okay, don’t come at me. I know that you know Stephen King has long been one of my absolute favorite authors. BUT I didn’t know this book existed. I got it on a super sale, and I devoured it. I simply couldn’t put it down. The concept of boys volunteering to walk for days on end without stopping, and the last survivor winning riches is so intense. This book was one of the first stories King ever wrote, and it reads like that. However, you can see the great writer he would become. In our world of reality shows getting ever darker, this dystopian book written nearly 50 years ago was pretty powerful. |
Best Audiobook: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I’m sure reading the book would be good too, but the full cast of narrators on this novel made it perfect. I simply don’t think I would have enjoyed it nearly as much if I hadn’t listened to this audiobook. I haven’t watched the TV show yet. I loved loved loved this book! |
Runner up: The Best Man’s Ghostwriter by Glen Powell. This is an Audible only audiobook, and one of those that I get free with my membership. I enjoyed it so much, I insisted my daughter listen to it too. It is read by a full cast of well-known actors. It’s a comedy that will have you laughing out loud, but it has some real things to say about the nature of friendship that hit me hard. |
Best Non-Fiction Book: I read a number of biographies this year. I want to say that the one by my favorite singer of all time Barbra Streisand was the best. It was fascinating but really long. I want to say that the one about Carole King was my favorite, because I’m about to direct a musical about her. Alas, it got a little dull in the second half. The one I enjoyed the most was As You Wish by Cary Elwes. His stories about the making of The Princess Bride were delightful. I enjoyed every second of this. And of course, since I love a full cast audiobook, I delighted in all the guest appearances from other actors and people involved with the film. |
Favorite Thriller/Horror Book of the Year: Sorry Stephen King. I know I read three of your books this year, but I’m going to have to give this one to The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. Yep, this one had me. Twisty and turny to the point where I was holding my breath and gritting my teeth. I will definitely be picking up more of her books. |
Runner up: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros. Come on, people. Why do you all like these books?
Favorite Book of the Year: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. If you go by the description, this books sounds like nonsense. And yet, it is so beautiful. I’m not much of a crier, but this book got me. So. Many. Feelings. If you haven’t read it yet, please go get it right now. The audiobook was narrated brilliantly. |
I'd love to know what you've been up to and what your favorite books of the year were. Please leave a comment! And I hope you find some amazing books to escape into for the new year!

Like all authors, I’ve read and re-read my own novels countless times before publication. The drafts while writing. The editing rounds. The proofreading rounds. However, after the books come out, I don’t need to read them all the way through again. I know where the “good parts” are or where to find quotes or excerpts for posts or articles. I don’t have a reason to read my own work. I’ve moved on to writing new stuff.
To celebrate this anniversary, I decided to read Cry of the Sea from cover to cover for the first time since 2014. I occasionally posted about my progress on my TikTok account and tried to be as objective as I could as I reviewed what I was reading. When I finished it, I thought, “What the heck?” and went on to read the other two books in the trilogy: Whisper of the Woods and Echo of the Cliffs.
- Just let them be. It takes the least effort to let them exist with F&I and just do occasional promos for them like I have been all along. I sell a copy once in a while when I make a little effort. I’d keep sharing the royalties for the privilege of not having to do work to change anything about them.
- Take the rights back and republish them independently. I’d need to give each book a solid edit, as I did find a number of errors or things I would write differently now. Get new covers designed. (Well, I play with that all the time. These are my latest ideas.) Format them. All things that require a monetary investment. Then I’d have to see if I can breathe new life into them with marketing and keep all the royalties. But will anyone buy them? Is there still a market for them? Or is this a waste of time?
The laziest side of me, and the part that has basically walked away from my writing career this past year says to do nothing. It isn’t worth the effort. If I’m going to work on a writing project, it should be something new, not something old.



Also, with regard to the market for Young Adult Fantasy right now, these aren't very sexy books. They were written very much with teens and tweeens in mind as the target audience, and they are "clean" books, far from the popular "Romantasy" trend right now. I could consider adding that layer to them, but while that might help sales, I don't think it would make for better stories.

So, I open this up to you, friends. I’d love to know your opinions, suggestions, ideas. If you’re reading this blog and you still haven’t read the Juniper Sawfeather books, the ebook versions are half off all month at Smashwords (Cry of the Sea is actually free), but they aren’t ever very expensive. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

In many ways, 2023 was a wonderful year for me as a creative person. I had a lot of experiences and opportunities that gave me joy. I started the year as an author with two books scheduled for release and ended the year running a large community theater.
While on the outside, the year seems full of nothing but triumphs, it was challenging in many ways and has led me to a very difficult decision.
I had finished directing a play in October 2022 and decided not to be part of any theater productions for the next six months. This was so I could be available for the editing process for both my books that were going to be released, do publicity on them, focus on making TikTok promo videos every single day, and work on writing my second romantic women’s fiction novel.
It was working out great at first. I got three quarters of the way through that novel. It felt like I was getting some excitement building about my upcoming releases. The only thing I stepped in to help with at the theater was doing costuming for Arsenic and Old Lace, which didn’t take too much time.

It has not.
Even at a permanently discounted price, I can’t seem to get much interest in this story – not with dragon books like Fourth Wing coming out in the same year. It has been very difficult to find people to review it (although the people who have really enjoyed it). I know there is an audience for this story, but I’m not sure how to reach them. It’s been incredibly frustrating. I’ve worked on this novel for years, and I was thrilled to see it finally get published. I knew that this would be my last attempt at writing a YA novel. It’s simply too hard of a market to penetrate, and I don’t write fantasy romance plots that everyone wants.


I thought this was the kind of book more of my friends would be interested in reading, so I really believed more of them would pick it up. The main character is my age. She’s a dancer. There’s a lot of theater and dance in the book. It’s about second chances in romance and career. It’s about friendship. It’s about courage and inner strength. I’m incredibly proud of this book published by Satin Romance Books, and I LOVE the cover (also by Caroline Andrus).
To say I’m disheartened is an understatement. To realize that after all these years of writing and publishing books that I don't have a following at all, is a tough pill to swallow.

So, right after Anything but Graceful came out, I was directing rehearsals for that. The show couldn’t have come out any better. The cast was incredible. We sold our goal in tickets, and everyone seemed to enjoy this sweet romantic comedy. I’ve rarely been more elated in my life than I was for those two weeks in September. I was especially thrilled that Caleb Dinger, who wrote the music and edited the audiobook was able to take leave from his position with the Navy Band Northeast surprise me at a performance. My friend Jane Thompson was music director and helped write the additional songs we put in the stage version. My daughter and husband were both in the cast.

And it didn’t help that sales of my sequel to Songwriter Night: Songwriter Showcase, didn’t go up. Very few people who saw or were part of the show felt any curiosity to read what happens next to these characters.
First of all, I hadn’t written a word on my new romance novel since the dismal release of Anything but Graceful. While I thought the story was super cute, and I loved where it was going, my motivation to write it was gone. And something else unexpected happened.
In August, the position of Managing Administrator opened at the theater where I do most of my work as an actress/director. The current production, Singin’ in the Rain, was in need of assistance to get back on track. My husband (tech director for the theater) and I were called in to help get that show’s set built and to assistant direct. Right after Singin’ closed, and while I was still in rehearsals for Songwriter Night, I was hired into the MA position. Now I was running a community theater that produces six shows a year, and I had a LOT to do to get caught up!
I have been at that theater nearly every single day since September 2nd, helping with the shows in rehearsal or production. Directing, assistant directing, assisting my husband with the sets, looking into rights for the 2024-2025 season, hiring people for production teams, doing marketing for the social media pages, attending board meetings, presenting at events, and understudying a role for a weekend. It’s a lot of work. Zero time for writing. Even getting this blog post written feels a little like I’m stealing time from other things I should be doing.


Runner up: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
My mom recommended Someone Else’s Shoes to me, and I’m so glad she did. It was an absolutely charming novel with a complicated plot that never got boring. I was completely entertained by this story and was sad when it was over. Brilliant.
Lessons in Chemistry was fascinating. I thought the writing was superb and the story was fascinating. I hope to watch the TV show at some point.

Runner up: The Girl Before Me by Laura Wolfe
This author is so adorable on TikTok. I accepted one of her ARCs for this clever take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. It’s a “what happens after” which I enjoy so much more than actual retellings. I think she has a sequel in the works which I look forward to reading. You know I always have Laura Wolfe somewhere on my list. She writes a good mystery, that gal.

I picked this out as a freebie on Audible. Time travel books aren’t usually my thing, but this one had me hooked. The main character finds he can travel back in time, but he has to learn how to do it and master the skill so he can go back and save his sister from being killed as a child. Great fun. The second book wasn’t as good, and I’m not sure if I’ll go on to the third book or not. It gave a lot of the same vibe as Stephen King’s 11/22/63.

Runner up: The Haunted Forest Tour by James A. Moore and Jeff Strand
Speaking of Stephen King. He can write as many books starring Holly as he wants to. I will keep reading them. I love this character. This book is the most chilling book of his that I’ve read in a while, which is interesting because it didn't have anything supernatural about it. I legitimately got scared listening to this and was sincerely concerned about several characters getting killed and eaten. The Haunted Forest Tour might not actually be a good book. It was wild and full of monsters and monstrous things. I listened to this right around Halloween and it hit the mark. Completely absurd horror fun.

I pick a favorite series based on if I want to keep reading it. So far, there are only two books of this apocalyptic tale about a world after a virus killed all the women (but one). I liked them both. I don’t know that they were the most original stories, but they were told really well, and I’m eager to know what happens next. I also enjoyed Julie Kagawa’s Talon series, although I did skip a whole book and didn’t actually realize it until halfway through the final novel, if that says something.

Runner Up: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
There are those books that everyone raves about, you know. Well, I thought Fourth Wing was good. It wasn’t anything worth gushing about. Frankly, I thought the romance part everyone raves about kind of ruined the dragon riding/war training plot of the story. Hello Beautiful had great moments, but I just didn’t like the characters very much and found myself not caring what happened to them.

Runner up: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
I recommended The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo to my mom, so we're even with good book recs. It's lush, romantic and full of Hollywood. I enjoyed every syllable of this book. It made it happy, angry, sad - all the feelings. I may read it again sometime, and I never do that. I listened to the audiobook of Tom Lake which was read by Meryl Streep, and I recommend doing that for anyone who want to pump up their experience of this sleepy novel. This book had a back-and-forth-in-time story similar in flow to my own novel, ABG, and that was fun to discover. All the acting, theater, and specifically Our Town references went straight to my theater heart. Lovely book.

To be vulnerable with you two days before my newest book Anything but Graceful comes out, I’m going to share that it’s not getting the love from NetGalley reviewers I’d hoped for. NetGalley is a service where authors and publishers pay to make their advanced reader copies of upcoming books available for people to request to read for review. A lot of avid readers have found that signing up as ARC readers is a great way to get free books and discover new authors. For authors and publishers, it’s a good way to launch a book with a handful of reviews already posted. People request to review the book, and the author or publisher gets to accept or decline recipients. Naturally, we want to give it to as many people as possible to up the results, as many people will never leave a review.

I didn’t bother with this service for the release of the Songwriter Romance novellas in 2021 or my latest YA release, Dragon Surf. But I thought a full length, traditionally published, women’s fiction, second chance romance like Anything but Graceful might get a different response, so I decided to brave it again. It has gotten LOTS of requests.

Because the marketing world likes to put things under specific labels to make them easier to find, books that are written by women, feature a woman as the main protagonist, deal with women-centered issues, and are read primarily by women are called “women’s fiction.” The same kind of book that is lighter in content or leans into humor might be called “chick lit”. (There are no “men’s fiction” or “dude’s lit” categories, but that is a subject for another time.) Women’s fiction does not have to feature romance. It can be about a woman’s psychological, spiritual, or physical journey. The relationships can be between friends or family. Women’s fiction novels aren’t required to have happy endings. Some recent women’s fiction titles I’ve enjoyed were Lessons in Chemistry, Someone Else’s Shoes, Hello Beautiful, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. A lot of these stories have love interests, but the stories center around the journey of the main female protagonist(s). WF is also either contemporary or historical fiction and considered literary fiction. You don’t see it matched with speculative genres like: scifi women’s fiction, thriller women’s fiction, or fantasy women’s fiction.


When I queried this book to agents and publishers, I did call it a women’s fiction novel with romance. It finally got accepted by Satin Romance Books. They liked that this was a story with a middle-aged protagonist, as there aren’t many of those in the romance book world. My editor, proofreader and I reworked a number of things, but no one asked me to increase the amount of romance in the book or change the ending. For a lot of the final act, Tyler is absent from the story while Grace goes through a journey of self-discovery and decides what she values and needs from life.
I’d love to hear from you. What are your opinions about these genres? Do you have any women’s fiction titles you’ve enjoyed and can recommend? I’m always looking for good books to read. Please leave a comment below.
Most of my friends, the ones I communicate with primarily through Facebook, know me as a theatre person. That makes sense. I did theatre all through school and got my college degree in Theatre Arts. I have been a performer in some capacity for most of my 54 years of existence. The vast majority of my friends, whether close or in passing, met me in a theatre setting. We have done shows together or have mutuals who have done shows together.
Some of my friends know me as a teacher. This is also true. I have taught and taken care of children since 1988 when I got my first job in a summer daycare program. I’ve been a teaching assistant in special education classrooms, taught dance and drama as an artist in residence, and I’ve worked in a variety of preschools, finally landing in my current job where I’ve cared for infants for nearly 18 years now. I do love teaching. As day jobs go, I’m pretty content with what I’ve chosen. |
I think because I didn’t join FB until 2010 that people don’t remember, or know much about, my life before that. When my first book as D. G. Driver released in 2014 (Cry of the Sea), a lot of people thought it was my first book ever. It wasn’t. I’d actually had 10 books published already. |
I started writing as a child. I was passionate about writing stories, poetry and song lyrics. I illustrated my stories, stapled them together and gave them as gifts to my parents. Any time I could get near a piano, I’d tap out notes to figure out the tunes for songs in my head. I can still sing a couple of them to this day.
My freshman year in college, I wrote two one-act plays. As a fundraiser for a trip I was taking to New York, I was allowed to direct them at my former high school. I called the show Life, Death, and… Trains. It was a strange show where I contemplated life after death. People seemed to dig it. I also spent most of my college years attempting to write my first novel. It was a horror novel called Completing the Moon. It’s pretty bad. |


I had several stories and articles published in magazines, books, and on websites in the 90s and early 2000s. Then I got a contract to co-author five nonfiction books about classical composers for Morgan Reynolds Publishers. After those came out (to great reviews and a couple awards), I was asked to write another book for them about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. That publisher, sadly, is also no longer operating. I’m very proud of these books, however.

I decided on D. G. Driver because Driver was my new last name. I chose to use initials because at the time I was working on a couple middle grade books that had boys as the leading characters. Funny enough, the main character of what was On the Water, was ultimately changed to a girl, and that book Lost on the Water, was published in 2018. The other book, No Lifeguard on Duty, is finally being published as a YA novel called Dragon Surf. (Preorder the ebook today!)

All of my YA books and my upcoming women’s fiction novel Anything but Graceful are with a traditional, small publisher. I do get royalties from them based on the sales of my books. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s some. I have a few self-published works as well for which royalties trickle in. Knowing I won’t get rich at this means that I do it a lot for the joy of creating. Getting the books published and available for others to enjoy is the reward. I've also met so many authors in person or online that I now consider friends.

I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment or scroll through the pages of my website and see if something I’ve written appeals to you. Then go order it and let me surprise you!
As a writer, I didn’t publish anything new this year. This is the first time I haven’t released a new book or at least a story in an anthology since the publication of Cry of the Sea, my first book as D. G. Driver, in 2014.

I’m very proud of Dragon Surf. It’s a fun story that has taken a long journey of rewrites over the years. However, I am planning on this being my last YA or children’s book. Unless something changes wildly for me this coming year, I don’t intend to write anymore books for younger readers. That said, I have great hopes for my first full-length women’s fiction/Gen-X/second chance romance novel Anything but Graceful. I’m hoping that it will finally be the book and genre that finds a steady audience, and I have several ideas for other books in this genre.

The other writing project I did this year was to adapt my audiobook musical Songwriter Night into a script for a staged production. The story is the same, but I’ve added three new songs. Caleb Dinger, who composed the music for the audiobook, is now a member of the U.S. NAVY band. We thank him for his service and wish him well. Due to that, I've asked another friend of mine to assist me with finishing up the music for the new numbers. I’ve got a meeting set up in January to pitch the musical to a local theatre here in Nashville. Cross your fingers that it goes well! It would be so exciting to see it performed!











Oh, and if you’re looking for something good to read, try one of the ones that I’ve suggested or bop around my website and see if I’ve written anything that would appeal to you.
And sign up for my newsletter. I'm going to try to actually start sending them out next year.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what gives entertainment value. Why will people pay high prices for some forms of entertainment but not others? Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand why people want to see Taylor Swift perform. However, if there were a new singer playing at a venue downtown, would these same music lovers hesitate to spend any money at all to go see her? Even if she was a friend?
To be fair, I’m not a person who pays high ticket prices. I have a modest income and a family to support. I’m a teacher, indie author, and community theatre performer. What little extra money I have – and it is VERY little – usually goes back into my books or shows or goes toward buying my friends’ books or seeing my friends’ shows. I didn’t even think about getting Taylor Swift tickets. Didn’t cross my mind as an option.

Here’s an example. I have a friend who devours young adult novels. She posts about them frequently on her social media pages. We’re Goodreads friends as well, so I see her reviews. She’s often asking for suggestions for her next read. She buys hardcovers of the newest hit books as soon as they are released.
She has never bought one of my young adult books. She’s never asked about them. She’s never talked to me about them. If she has a Kindle, she could get all five of my YA books for less than the price of one of her big name hardcover novels. Doesn’t matter. I could offer them for free, and she still won’t get them. She doesn’t see small press published books as worthy of her time.

Still, the point is (whether about my work or not) that some people have a definite idea of what has value to them. With regard to entertainment, value is often weighed more against time spent than cost. They will spend good money on something that is guaranteed to be good. There’s no question Taylor’s concert will be great, Hamilton will amaze, and the newest novel by a favorite famous author will be riveting.
People are less likely to spend money, even if the price is dramatically lower, on entertainment that isn't guaranteed to be good. That new singer at the small venue might have a few clunky songs. The community theatre play might be poorly acted or have bad costumes. The book by that indie author might be full of grammatical errors or fail to make sense. So, even if all it costs is a cover charge and a beer, a low ticket price, or a dollar at Amazon, it feels like a risk to spend money and time on something that might not be good.

It takes people who are perhaps more generous with how they use their time to trust or even seek out entertainment that isn’t a guarantee. Often this starts as a favor. Your friend is singing in a band or acting in a show. She’s asked you to come many times, and you finally have a free night and decide, “what the heck, I’ll go check it out.”
Or someone you work with has written a book. You know it’s not the kind of thing you usually read, or maybe you don’t read much at all. Still, she’s been talking about it for a while, and over your summer vacation you choose it to read it while you suntan at the beach.
And maybe the show is great. And maybe the book is fun. Now you know you can trust this person to entertain you, and their entertainment value goes up. At least a little.
There’s a bias that most people have that if you know the person who wrote the play, book, or song, then it probably isn’t very good. We don’t trust it. These normal people that we work with or are friends with couldn't possibly be that talented or they'd be making a living with their art. Right?
I have definitely been to some original plays that were boring or weird. I’ve been in a couple that were bad. However, I’ve also seen some that were absolutely brilliant, and I’ve had the privilege of performing in a couple that were extremely well written.
We're taking a risk when we go see something new. Sometimes it pays off and sometimes it doesn’t.
How daring are you with your time and money?
It gives your friendship a different kind of value too.
All right, I’ve spent too much time ruminating about this when I should have been writing my novel. I’m curious about your thoughts on the subject. How and where do you prefer to spend your entertainment dollars? What do you value? Is it saving up for big concerts, professional theatre, or the next New York Times bestseller? Is it discovering the unknown gems? Or do you do a little of both?
I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment.

As for making my own content, that’s a whole different story. I have a couple friends who are doing tremendously well on TikTok, but they aren’t authors. They’re doing well because of the persona or message they're putting across.
What on earth would anyone want to see this middle-aged indie author doing or saying? Obviously, I’m on there to promote my books, but so are thousands of other writers. No one wants to see outright sales pitches, so I had to find my way of expressing myself. In addition to writing, I’m also an actress/singer with a huge love a musical theater. I decided to combine my passions and create content where I would sing showtunes that either go thematically with a book of mine or that reflect things that happen in an author’s life.

My daughter told me I’d be more successful following the trends on the app, doing some lip-synching, and using trending sounds. That makes sense, and while I’ve done a couple of those, I feel like I’m just one of a million when I do them. It's fun but feels insincere.

I don’t wear makeup regularly, but I have to put some on for these or I look like death warmed over. So, I try to shoot a couple at a time.
Editing them together is challenging and takes more time than I thought. Most of the effects don’t work unless you record directly onto the app. I’ve edited a couple longer videos on Canva and uploaded them. It’s taking an enormous amount of time to put these things together, and some of them are literally only a few seconds long.

I’ve shared some as reels on Instagram, and it’s interesting how different the responses are to these videos from one app to the other. I can tell that my Instagram followers are more interested in my singing/personal ones than the TikTok community. Also, it’s very clear that short, punchy videos do so much better than long, talky ones no matter which app I use.
The year began on a big high as I figured out how to publish the sweet romantic Nashville inspired audiobook I’d worked on so hard with songwriter Caleb Dinger and a cast of talented Nashville actors. We chose to go through Findaway Voices, and that made Songwriter Night: A Musical Romance available on every audiobook platform, the biggies being GooglePlay, Apple Books, Chirp, Kobo, Audiobooks.com and Audible. Yes, you can even borrow it from your public library.

We even did a “Listening Dinner Theatre” event in the spring where people bought tickets to enjoy a nice meal while listening to the 3-hour story. It was a blast, and I loved watching people react to everything and sing along to the song at the end.
Next, I worked on releasing Songwriter Night in ebook and print. It took a little revising because the story had originally been written in script format. I did a guest blog post about that process for Stacy Juba’s Shortcuts for Writers. The book version got some lovely reviews as well.

In the end, however, my heart urged me to continue the love stories I started with my Nashville songwriters. So, I wrote a sequel called Songwriter Showcase. It was a blast to write because I had the voices of the actors from the audiobook in my head, and I could hear how they would read the lines. I also mined through the collection of songs I’d written in my twenties and used several of them in the story.
I released Songwriter Showcase with little fanfare in October and haven’t had much time to do any marketing for it. I’m hoping to fix that once we get past the holidays. (If you’re interested in review copies of either book, please let me know.) I also hope to record some of the new songs that I wrote for this story. It is a tremendous amount of work to record a full cast, musical audiobook, and this story is almost twice as long as the last one. I’m still trying to figure out a way to do it that will work. I’m toying with the idea of recording a staged reading of it, but I haven’t run that by Caleb or my actors yet. I’ll definitely let y’all know what happens.
In the new year I plan to revisit these characters once again to adapt Songwriter Night so that we can perform it as a live stage show. After that, I think I will go back to one of the novels I deserted last spring.


The woman playing Rosie to my Tanya in Mamma Mia was slated to direct the Christmas show, and she asked me to assistant direct and choreograph Miracle in Bedford Falls (a musical based on the film It’s a Wonderful Life). That turned out to be another magical experience that again left me in tears on closing night (only one week ago as I write this). I loved the show so much, and the cast was so delightful.
I’m not entirely sure what my theater plans are for 2022 at this point, but I have my fingers crossed for more opportunities to direct and at least one chance to perform.
According to my Goodreads Challenge, I read 39 books, and I have two more I should finish before the new year. Once again, my reading genres were all over the place. I can’t help it. I like stories of all kinds. My list is heavier on audiobooks because I listen during my long commutes. I read a little YA, romance, women's fiction, some thrillers, and a couple non-fiction works.





Happy New Year! Let’s hope it’s a happier, healthier one!
This book, Songwriter Showcase, wound up being almost twice as long as the first story, although the main plot still takes place in one evening.
My plan is to release the book on November 9th, and it is available for pre-order on Kindle now!
Here is the cover for the new book! Do you like it?
Emotions run high and jealousy reigns when the members of songwriter group night enter a talent competition against each other.
It’s been a couple months since Trish attended her first songwriter night and started her relationship with Lyle. Things have been going nicely for them but haven’t been quite as smooth for Odetta and Neil. These new relationships are put to the test when all four of them enter a big songwriting competition where the finalists will perform in a showcase in front of a panel of judges. The winner will get an offer of agent representation and a possible recording deal. Now they’re all in competition, trying to figure out how to support each other while still wanting to win.
It doesn’t help that both Lyle and Neil feel slighted because Trish and Odetta are singing songs they’ve written about former relationships. There’s also a striking young woman named Carly who could definitely snag the prize away from any of them.
Oh, and one more problem. Aiden Bronson is one of the judges.
Is the love between Trish and Lyle or Odetta and Neil strong enough to survive this tense night? No matter the outcome?
Each book will continue to feature song lyrics, but at this point I'm not planning to do full cast audiobooks for the sequels. I would like at some point to record the songs, however. So, stay tuned for that.


I wrote Songwriter Showcase on weekends between rehearsals for two back-to-back musical productions this past summer. We just finished up Mamma Mia (at long last) two weeks ago. So sad that it's over, but so happy we finally got to do the show!
I'm about to go into rehearsals for a Christmas show that I'm choreographing and assistant directing. That'll keep me pretty busy through the remainder of the year.
Next up for Lyle, Trish and the gang will be Songwriter Session, but I need a break from them for a moment while I concentrate on marketing the existing titles. I'm planning to go back to one of the women's fiction novels that I started during the spring and see if I can make some progress on it. I'm still sending my other women's fiction novel Attitude of Grace to agents and publishers for consideration. It's a long, slow, painful process, but I have hope that this book about rediscovering yourself in mid-life will find its place in the world.
I'd love to hear from you! Comment to tell me what you think of the new book cover. What have you been reading lately? I'm always happy to answer any questions you may have. All the best to you!
D. G. Driver
Award-winning author of books for teen and tween readers. Learn more about her and her writing at www.dgdriver.com
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