More about Emma Roberts braces

Nothing new has happened with the books for a while, and the new one is taking time, but Emma Roberts's movie Nancy Drew opened in America so there's more about the 94 Weeks-girl.

We'll probably back in America when Nancy Drew opens here. It sounds like a movie the girls would like, but the braces issue really does bother me. Seeing what they're going through I think it really would be a bit disappointing to them if they knew Roberts had braces but they were the hidden kind. So I guess I won't even mention it, though they might pick it up from some of the magazines they read.

It's twice as frustrating because Roberts seems pretty ok with talking about the braces. Someone sent me this article where they write this:

As if on cue, her mother knocks at the door and a pricelessly teenage moment - free of Hollywood issues - ensues: "Mom, don't let me forget my retainers, okay?" Roberts turns back to her discussion, as real as ever. "Yes, I have retainers. And braces, too. Removable. I'm probably going to have them for another couple of years."

It's sort of great that she talks about them like that, but it reinforces the message that the braces-look is a big no-no on the screen. And I wonder what kind of braces those are....

Emma Robert's braces episodes

The 94 Weeks essay seems popular with readers, so I'l try and get some more Dr.Wrighting essays up!

A fan e-mailed me to let me know that all the Unfabulous episodes can be watched at the Nick site. It's great! The Rhinoceros in the Middle surprised me a bit because the braces don't seem to bother Emma Roberts very much there - but then it has that stupid ending where she gets the invisible ones.... It's such a shame they didn't let her wear them longer, because she really does handle them like they don't bother her too much, despite the way she looks. Unfortunately The Party - the one where she gets braces - doesn't play right, so one can't see it. I hope they get that fixed soon!

Otherwise not too much happening. Sales of the books in May were o.k., but I wish I could get more people interested. And the new book is coming along well too but it will still take a few months.

Mid-weekly update

Sales are still low, and no reviews from readers yet either, but the new book is coming along pretty well. But it will be a while before that is finished!

Since I have nothing new, I can just point to these videos by Caroline at Youtube: when she gets her braces off (after 2 years and 4 months!) and when she talks about her retainers. Nice!

Weekly update

It is gratifying to see that there's some interest in the books, as quite a few went flying off the shelves in the past week. A copy of The Braced Experience was even bought at Amazon (all the other copies of it so far have been bought through Lulu) - but no one has bought Love and Braces at Amazon yet (just Lulu - and the German Amazon!). So I really hope word of mouth starts spreading now (and maybe readers will leave reviews at Amazon and Lulu - good ones, I hope).

I still think Retainer Girl is the best "starter" book to see what the Dr.Wrighting books are like, and it probably also has the broadest appeal. But I guess I really think all of them are worth reading. Love and Braces is a much longer story which I guess gives more of an idea of the whole experience of having braces - and I think it's a pretty good love story to. The Braced Experience has more (10!) different stories of what it's like having braces, so maybe readers who are interested in a variety of experiences will find that one the most interesting. But I hope everybody likes them all!

The next book is coming along well too, though I still have some reservations about it. But I think it will work well as a whole. It's going to be long, too - maybe the longest one so far. But I also have all these other stories left over from The Braced Experience, so I think the book after that will collect those. The Braced Experience II, maybe.

The Braced Experience now available !

It went much faster than I expected, and the third Dr.Samantha Wrighting book, the collection of orthodontic stories The Braced Experience, is now listed in Books in Print, so your local bookseller can order it for you - and it's now available at Amazon, and the Amazons in England, Germany and so on. (It wasn't listed at Barnes & Noble yet but it should be soon, if you prefer shopping there.)

So anyone who wants to buy it can now get it pretty easily - and I hope there's lots of interest. The Braced Experience is a bit different from the two novels, Retainer Girl and Love and Braces, because it's all shorter stories, but that means more variety and more different stories about what's it's like having braces (and retainers and headgear).

I hope readers like it! Especially since I have a lot more stories I want to write....

Weekly update

Even though I usually only check in how everything is going about once a week it's sort of disappointing how hard it is to get readers interested - or to reach them! I guess I understand that everyone is waiting until The Braced Experience is available everywhere and not just at Lulu before getting it, but Love and Braces has been available at Amazon and so on for a while now, and it looks like the only one readers who have bought it are the ones at the German one.

The piece I put up about The Unfabulous Appearances and Reality of Braces on TV also hasn't brought in that many readers. I think it's also because you wouldn't find it on search engines, so it's only the readers who are already fans and know about the site who find it. I think that the Emma Roberts and Emma Watson and Dakota Fanning fans would find it interesting too, to read about them and their braces, and all the other ways braces are shown on TV. But without knowing about it I guess they haven't seen it yet. Too bad, because I think a lot of those girls might be the ones who would also like the Dr.Wrighting books!

New book !

I do worry about getting ahead of myself, but there's a new book out! The Braced Experience,which is a collection of orthodontic stories. So far it is only available at Lulu, and it will probably take over a month until you can get it at Amazon and everywhere else, but eager fans can already get their hands on it! There's information at Lulu, and there are also excerpts from three of the stories at the Intraoral Press site. I'll have more to say about it when it is available at other outlets and everyone can easily buy it, but I hope that that's enough information for those who are considering getting it from Lulu!

I should be spending more time trying to publicize Love and Braces since that hasn't sold that many copies yet, but I'm telling myself that it's also good to build up the number of books that are available.

And I am working on more Dr.Wrighting books, though I'm not sure which will come next. There's The Girl Next Door which is a novel, and I'm also working on another story collection, for all the stories that didn't fit in The Braced Experience. But I think I might finish both before the end of the year.

Something new

I have added something new to the Intraoral Press site: an essay "written" by Dr.Wrighting called 94 Weeks and Single Episodes: The Unfabulous Appearances and Reality of Braces on TV.

I like this idea of putting up pieces "by" Dr.Wrighting, especially the sort of things that don't fit in the books and I think this one is pretty good. I had a lot of help from Ashley, who helped take care of the girls last summer and fortunately knows a lot more about kids-TV than I (or my girls!) do and used the research skills she's learning at college to find so much material.

It was also fun trying to find a voice for Dr.Wrighting. So far in the books it's all the patients describing everything, and you don't really get to know her that well. And since this is supposed to be a serious essay it also has to sound sort of professional and academic. I had some help with that, even though it was hard agreeing to some of the changes. But I think the overall result is good. And I am sure I'll try and write more of these too. (Ashley already gave me one more great idea, and I'd also like to write some about how Dr.Wrighting treats patient - maybe a mission statement or something of that sort.)

Weekly update

The stories are coming along very well and I think that The Braced Experience will be a fun collection. But with some of them I feel it's a shame not to write "the full story" - the way I did in Love and Braces and Retainer Girl. It's tough letting a lot of these characters go after only ten or twenty pages, and in almost every case there's so much more to say about each of their "braced experiences" and what having braces is like for each of them. But I hope readers like the variety - the different stories and experiences that are described.

I'm also writing something else which I'm having a lot of fun with, but that's going to be a surprise!

I'm still disappointed with the sales of Love and Braces so far, but maybe when there's a third book available too there will be enough available that readers will come across one book and then want to try the others and the books will start reaching more people. And I really hope it catches on among the teen or college readers, because I think that is the target audience who would like these books best.

Reality and fiction

Back from taking the girls to the orthodontist. I'm working on The Braced Experience right now, which is a collection of stories, and it's the first of the Dr.Samantha Wrighting books being written while I'm also seeing first-hand what the whole orthodontic experience is like again. What my girls are going through is different from what I went through - both the technological improvements and the office-visits themselves, and I guess my stories are more "old fashioned" (and exagerrated), but I think that works. So far, it's in the smaller details that what the girls are going through has really influenced what I'm writing. Like I'll catch them looking in the mirror sometimes, and I want to try to capture that look and the way it's different from the way they looked in the mirror a few months ago. Or the small things where the expander or the braces get in the way which I'd forgotten about.

I decided to use one more personal family experience in some of the stories - "the precaution" as we call it - though the daughter in question would be mortified. But I think it fits with the whole Dr.Wrighting experience, and I think it is probably more common than most people think.

I'm amazed how much I still have to write. I think The Braced Experience will have 10 or 11 stories (I want it to be around 200 pages long), but that's only half the stories I have outlines for! And I have another idea for a novel now too.

Right now I'm not thinking too much about finding readers and all that, though I porbably should be. I'm not sure the books will ever really catch on but I have so much to write that at the moment I almost don't care. But I guess I am a bit disappointed and surprised that there hasn't been more interest in Love and Braces yet. I really think there is an audience for it and for Retainer Girl - girls who really would get something out of them and feel better.

I'm really bad trying to do the publicity things, but I did add the press release for Love and Braces at the Intraoral Press MySpace page!