Since my blog, The Word Place, concentrates on resources for writers, I need a place to write about writing. Watch for irregular entries! |
December 4: It's not a good thing when writers are too busy to write! I seem to be in that unenviable situation right now. First of all, I made the mistake of submitting two full-length novels to two separate publishers at the same time, thinking surely one of them would be rejected. It didn't happen. So, I find myself in the middle of simultaneous edits for two novels. Fortunately, one has reached the stage of line edits which, hopefully, won't come back to me until after Christmas! Meanwhile, I need to be promoting not only the two novels releasing in 2012 but also the three novels already out there, which are earning small royalties but should be doing better. I have tons of ideas and not enough time to implement them. So how do I strike a balance? I've already decided that I will not be writing and submitting again for a year, at least not novels. I'll watch for opportunities to submit short stories and articles for anthologies, but anything over 5K words is OUT. My primary goal for 2012 is promotion promotion promotion. Meanwhile, I've decided to go indie with my six cozy mystery novels. Number 5 was completed during NaNoWriMo, and Number 6 got started to the tune of 20 pages to complete the required 50K words for November. But all of them must be revised before I can even think of getting them out there via Amazon, Smashwords, etc. Time is the key. I feel it's slipped from my hands, just as I was unlocking the door, and spun away under a cabinet to repose in a dark corner. Now I have to find and retrieve it and get that door open. Any ideas? December 29 Line edits for Dancing with Velvet will be on their way to my editor at TWRP on January 2. They're finished--just want one more look to be sure I haven't missed anything. The line edits for The Face on Miss Fanny's Wall will be on their way to me soon, according to an email from Champagne Books. I'm anxious to see the cover for TFOMFW. Editing is always tedious and grueling, but the big job is yet to come--promotion! I'm planning a launch event for TFOMFW at the place which inspired me to write it, and DWV will, hopefully, get a book signing in its real-life setting--my hometown. I hope to go back and re-promote my other three books: Where Is Papa's Shining Star?, Finding Papa's Shining Star, and The Showboat Affair now that I have some new ideas to get the word out. In addition, I've signed on to write an Andy Rooney-style commentary for another website every second Saturday. More on that later. But that fits with my resolve to do only "shorts" while I promote and re-promote--and get the Penelope Pembroke cozies ready for DIY publishing online. It's going to be a busy year. I hope that, on the twenty-ninth of December 2012, I will feel it's been a productive one as well. January 15 I'll be writing a commentary for Sandra Sookoo's Front Porch Saturday on the second Saturday of every month. Here is the one that 'went live' yesterday.
Where Did Whoever I Was Go—and Do You Even Want to Know?
Writing is a creative, albeit solitary, activity, and engaging in it changes a person. I’ve been writing since I could hold a #2 pencil in my fat little fist, but it wasn’t until I retired that I buckled down to learn the next step—publication. I learned enough to get lucky. Now I’m a published author. I can’t point to a great epiphany or even an ‘aha’ moment, but one day I took a good look at my life and understood I’d realized my dream—a little late, perhaps, but that’s okay. That’s when I took another good look at myself and didn’t like what I saw. My generation of women grew up in the shadow of stay-at-home mothers who focused exclusively on their husbands and children. They deserve a lot of credit. I was one myself—and don’t regret a single moment of the time I spent rocking babies, baking bread, and scrubbing the kitchen/bathroom linoleum on my hands and knees. I’d do it again. But when I became a widow at the age of 34, I was woefully unprepared to face a world of which I’d never been a part. Somehow, I managed, and then it was over. The kids grew up and went out on their own, my parents died and so no longer required my care, and I retired a few years early. Like I said, I got lucky and found my way into the publishing world. Now I was an author—but who was I really? I’d been the ‘good little girl’ who never broke rules. Adolescence had passed me by without allowing me to emerge from its struggles into true maturity. So, back to the mirror and the fact that I didn’t like what I saw. Since then, I’ve been a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. Or maybe a baby crocodile chewing free from its shell. I think I like the crocodile analogy better. They live longer than butterflies, though both are at risk of predators. At least there are some laws protecting crocodiles. I’ve made a few ‘laws’ myself. If the shoe fits…
1. I was your Mom, and I’m still your mother, but I’m not responsible for you anymore. 2. I am a person—an adult—a woman—not last winter’s jacket still hanging around waiting to be needed again. 3. I am also a writer. I work hard. It’s not just fun and games. (Do four rounds of edits on a 300 page manuscript—which has already been rewritten and revised half a dozen times—and a couple rounds of line edits on same. Then you can tell me I’m just playing.) 4. I am retired, but that doesn’t mean I have unlimited free time. I still have a schedule to which I must adhere if I’m going to accomplish anything. 5. Call if you really need me, but don’t consider me a convenience. 6. Doing something for myself isn’t selfish—it’s a long-neglected necessity. 7. Taking a calculated risk isn’t irresponsible. If I go traveling and something happens to me, at least I went out happy. 8. Don’t tell me what to do. How often, past the age of 12, did you do anything I told you to do? 9. Don’t presume to criticize my decisions. You survived to a productive adulthood under my care, didn’t you? 10. I no longer wear the yoke of obedience/obligation, at least to another human being. Why are you surprised?
Excuse me while I slip into my jeans, a funky (but modest) top, some bling (including earrings for the new second hole in each ear), and change purses to match. The coffee shop is calling. Have lappy, will answer.
When I re-created myself as a
writer, I re-created mySELF. It’s a good feeling. January 26 Feeling the need to be able to create my own book trailers, I took a class with the local computer club. It was worth every minute spent and every penny spent. But I let time go by before I got down to the actual creation of said trailer. I tend to do things like that...learn how...convince myself I can do it...then put it off because I'm just not quite sure! However, with a release day for Dancing with Velvet coming up a mere six months from now, I decided it was time to take the plunge. It took most of the morning and into the afternoon, several startings-over and figurings-out, but the deed is done, uploaded to Youtube and transferred to this website! And I am feeling oh so smug! I'm entitled. After spending most of my life being told I couldn't do things--no explanation given, just an allusion to my innate inability--I finally became the proverbial worm who turned. Now my message is, "Don't tell me I can't do something, because I'll turn right around and do it just to prove I can." Maybe things take me a little longer, but they get done. The little engine who thought he could has nothing on me. So click back to my home page and see the result of today's labors. My friend Linda says, "You go, girl!" I went. February 8 It's not writing the book...it's not even the edits and the tedious galleys...it's promotion! The thesaurus tells me that is equivalent to advertising, publicity, fanfare, puffery, ballyhoo, hype, advancement, promulgation...well, you get the idea. Or maybe I get the idea--finally--that one cannot be shy and retiring and sell any books! And promotion is time-consuming and also hard work. You never learn everything, no matter how many books/blogs you read on the subject, no matter how many webinars you take in...there's still more out there to learn. With The Face on Miss Fanny's Wall releasing March 6, followed by Dancing with Velvet on June 15 (notice how neatly I slipped in those tidbits of promotional information), I have my nose to the grindstone...or, literally, to the computer screen. The main thing I've learned is that the opportunities are out there. You just have to look for them and then hit the SEND key--and remember that all anyone can say is no. And writers know all about that...the BIG NO...the rejection slip... I've hit the SEND key several times in the past few days...now I'm hoping for some positive replies! Tomorrow I'll hit it again...and the day after that...it's called promotion, and there's no expiration date. |
