For Author Crush Month 2012, I wanted to continue my study of self-publishing. So I asked four friends to share with you their self-publishing experiences from four different vantage points. Today, James Scott Bell shares his story of self-publishing shorter works even while he continues to traditionally publish his novels. Please welcome Jim!

So I’m sitting there little over a year ago after having three books come out and looking at these people self-publishing and making extra dough. Sometimes a lot of extra dough. So I finally said, What am I doing sitting here not making extra dough?

My current traditional contract is under a pen name, K. Bennett. This is for zombie legal thrillers, a genre I happened to invent. That left a window for James Scott Bell to start experimenting with e-books. And to become the sort of writer he always admired.

I love the old pulp writers, the guys who made a living pounding out stories during the Depression, some of whom became truly great. People like Hammett, Chandler, Cornell Woolrich. I like the idea of being prolific and being good at the same time.

I started with two collections that each included a complete novella and three stories. I did the novellas in the style of James M. Cain, another prolific writer of the old school.

One More Lie is the title novella of one collection. It’s the story of what happens when you make one bad choice and try to cover it with another.

Watch Your Back is the novella in the other collection, and it’s one of those stories where the too-slick hero gets involved with a femme fatale. Sort of like Double Indemnity. Who is using whom? This collection also features a story readers seem to love, “Heed the Wife,” with the sort of twist ending I love.

I find these types of stories to be profoundly moral. I think the best noir comes out of the view that rough justice happens. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.

Also, I put out a collection of some of my articles on fiction writing as an e-book, Writing Fiction for All You’re Worth. And I started a short story series, boxing tales set in 1950s Los Angeles.  The first of those is “Iron Hands.”

All this was done as I completed work on my contracted books. I was busy, but extremely happy. Especially when I started getting those monthly infusions into my bank account.

Here’s the deal: It’s all about options and freedom. So long as you’re honoring your traditional contracts, and you have negotiated them in the proper way, and you’re getting along with everybody, having an independent line that complements your traditional work is a no-brainer. It’s real income, and I have this quaint notion that writers are entitled to earn real income from what they write.

But with this freedom there is responsibility. Being in charge of your own writing means you are CEO of your own publishing enterprise. You can expect to experience the stresses and strains of running a small business. You will need new skills to handle them. These can be acquired, but only through effort and self-discipline.

The most challenging part is internal quality control. With traditional publishing, you’re working with a team of professionals and a window of time of a year to eighteen months per book. One of the most exciting things about indie publishing is the speed with which you can bring out books. But you have to find ways to give your work the attention it needs, everything from cover design to marketing copy to editing and formatting. You simply have to think like a business for all these tasks.

So don’t move too fast. Learn your stuff. Put yourself through a self-imposed meat grinder with your writing. Get critiqued. Hire a good freelance editor. Use beta readers you can trust to give you the straight scoop.

This all takes time to develop, but you need that network. You’re not just going to roll a new car out of your factory in a couple of days. You’re going to need tests to make sure the thing runs and can make a long trip. Turn out a couple of those and you can make it an assembly line.

Which is the coin of the realm in self-publishing. It’s as simple and as profound as this: write crazy good books and stories and get them out into the market. And keep doing that, over and over, for the rest of your life.

James Scott Bell is the author of the #1 bestselling book for writers, Plot & Structure, as well as Revision & Self-Editing and The Art of War for Writers. His latest release is Conflict & Suspense.

Please leave a comment and ask Jim any questions you have about his books or his foray into self-publishing. He’d love to hear from you!

When I contacted Cat Weatherill to ask her if she’d like to participate in Author Crush Month, I told her that when I was reading her  book Wild Magic , I was struck thinking it would make a great read-aloud book. Then I started adding sticky tabs to sentences that had a fresh image (to record later in my writer’s notebook)…several sticky tabs later and I booted up my laptop to find out who she was! And then it all made sense. She is a storyteller, the kind you would go watch at a book festival. And it comes out in her writing in a different way than someone who is an author only.

I asked her if she could share some tips from a storytelling perspective that would help me add more drama and more auditory focus to my writing. And happily for us, she agreed:

When it comes to writing novels, being a storyteller has its advantages and its disadvantages. In this blog, I will focus purely on the positive! The benefits. How I think it has helped me. And in talking about my writing, I hope to show how you might lift your text from the page and set it dancing in your readers’ ears.

The main advantage to being a storyteller, I think, is having a very distinctive ‘voice.’ It has been formed organically, through hours and hours of live performance. It is this voice that people hear when they read my books and, because it is a storyteller’s voice, it means the books read aloud extremely well. I also have a cinematic imagination – I use words to paint pin sharp images – and I evoke atmosphere in a multi-sensory way.

I am sometimes asked whether I tell the story out loud then write it down. No, I don’t do that, but I do think visually. This is what storytelling is about – creating a string of visual images. You have an image in your head, and you send that image to your listener’s head via spoken words. The image will reform in a different way – it comes through the listener’s personal filters before it reassembles – but that is the joy of it. The uniqueness. I use the same approach to the written word. I imagine a narrative as a necklace: there are beads linked by a thread. I spend time polishing the beads so they shimmer and captivate the reader. And I bring in sounds and smells to evoke the atmosphere fully. Here is an example of a ‘bead’ from Barkbelly:

By evening, the circus was ready to open. Barkbelly left the cottage at dusk and cut through the orchard toward Farmer Gubbin’s land. A low mist was rising. The air was still and curiously charged. He walked on, his heart drumming with excitement. And when he emerged from the shadow of the trees and saw the massive Stardust Palace rising from the mist, he caught his breath and bit his lip. It was too wonderful for words. As he walked through the long grass, his legs grew damp and sticky with seeds, but he didn’t notice. He was looking at the lanterns, bright as beads, strung between the wagons. He could hear the hum of the crowd, the roar of a lion, the crack of a whip.

As he drew closer, he could smell cotton candy and hot honeyed nuts. Sausages. Soap. Woodsmoke. Tobacco smoke. Sharp, sulphurous gun smoke!

Barkbelly was lost in a joyous, bewildering chaos of colour and sensation. His fingers closed around the money in his pocket. Three precious coins that would buy a ticket into the heart of this paradise.

I also love playing with language, and think rhythmically. Sometimes I put these rhythms directly onto the page. When they are read aloud, they add vibrancy to the text and feel delightful on the tongue. It saddens me when these lovingly crafted rhythms are lost in translation, along with my alliteration. And my character names! In the Danish version of Barkbelly, he is called Traeskind, which means ‘wooden child.’ That’s just not the same! The warm, cosy humour of the word ‘belly,’ the alliteration, the image of the bark-textured belly – all lost in one translated word. Hmm! Sometimes you just have to let these things go, but it’s a shame. These are my characteristic ‘flourishes’ as a writer. My style.

Here is an example of rhythmic writing, again from Barkbelly, when pirates suddenly attack the ship he is on:

Chaos and confusion! A bell ring, foot stomp, Flynn fly, do-or-die, panic-stricken sailor cry, chaos and confusion!

And polished alliterative language from Snowbone, when the character Blackeye is flying across the ocean by night:

Over the waves, under the moon, into the east he went. Over sailing ships that snailed across the ocean, leaving their trails behind them, silver as starlight. Over islands, secret-sleeping, scattered like cushions on the wakeful waves. Over sage whales, barnacle blue, singing sea songs older than time.

I am very fond of sound effects in my books. As a storyteller, I use them all the time because they bring a story to life. When I write a book, I add the sounds I would make as a teller, spelled out phonetically. Not only do they bring the text to life, but anyone reading the book out loud will find themselves spontaneously making the sounds too. Children love to hear grown ups making sound effects, but adults often lack the confidence to do it, thinking they will look silly. By adding them to the text, I gently overcome resistance. Here’s an example from Wild Magic:

Finn reached for an arrow, set it into his bow and let if fly: ffoooooo!

But ENOUGH about my writing! Let’s look at how you might bring a storyteller’s sparkle to your work.

1. Make more magic

I have a comments book. At the end of every adult show, I encourage people to write in it. And the same words appear time and time again: magical… spellbinding… enchanting… captivating. This is not coincidence. I believe the job of a storyteller is to conjure magic: to create a world from a single breath and transport the listeners there, captivating them so fully, they won’t notice the time that’s passing. They will be lost; entangled in the tale.

And that is how we want our readers to be, isn’t it? Gripped! Enthralled. Fervently page turning. And yes, strong characters and great plotting play essential parts in achieving this, but I think a vividly imagined world is vitally important too. As a writer, you journey through a created world and you invite your readers to walk with you. The more ‘alive’ this landscape is to you, the more alive it will be to them. This is where magic comes in.

Set aside some time to explore your world. I find this easiest in a darkened room lit only with fairy lights. I sit in a comfortable chair, close my eyes and start picturing the world of my story. In India, storytelling is sometimes referred to as the Cinema of the Imagination, and this is what you are doing here: running a private movie of your novel’s landscape. Step into it… explore it… experience it. Allow yourself to be surprised by it.

This technique can be used for looking at a specific scene in your book. Picture the setting then bring your characters into it. Note how they move, the expressions on their faces, the power dynamics at work – how they are relating to the space and each other.

This can be an extraordinarily revealing exercise – and very powerful. Some months ago, I worked on an oral story about a very sick girl who was given a pretty dress for her birthday. I had imagined her as frail and wasted, but it wasn’t until I did this exercise that I saw she had no hair. I was shocked. How could I have overlooked something like that? As I watched the scene unfold before me, the girl’s mother tenderly slipped the red woollen dress over the thin body, and I clearly heard her whisper: ‘You’re beautiful.’ I started to cry. In that moment, it had become so real.

2. Get physical

This is taking the above one stage further – getting out of the chair and joining in. I am a very physical performer and have an acting background, so it’s often impossible for me to stay sitting down! I am driven to explore the scene physically.

Again, this can be very revealing – sometimes in a very practical sense. You might find, for example, that it is physically impossible for your hero to do what you had him doing.

Charles Dickens frequently acted out scenes from his books. His daughters would hear him hotly arguing with someone in the next room and rush in, only to find him alone. I seem to recall reading that he threw himself into his dramatics with such vigour, his rehearsals of the death of Nancy scene from Oliver Twist (in readiness for a live speaking tour) so badly affected his own health, he died before the tour began.

3. Read your work aloud

If you want a book to read well aloud, you must read it aloud! Better still, get someone else to read it aloud for you. Make a note of any words or phrases they stumble over, and then change them. With children’s books, ask a child to read and listen to how they pronounce the character’s names – if they can read them at all. With Barkbelly, I was shocked to find my eight year old test reader couldn’t pronounce the name of the very first character named in the book. Page one! What a terrible impression to give: this book will be hard to read. I changed the name instantly.

4. Be playful

… with language and images. A sense of moderation must prevail, of course, or the book will become over-written and florid. A good editor will help judge if you’ve gone too far. But certainly in the first draft, which should be written for yourself (‘with the door closed’ as Stephen King wonderfully puts it) I think you should have fun. It’s easier to cut later than add later.

Well – that’s it! It’s time for me to make yet another cup of tea. I cannot write without it!

Happy writing,

Cat

Cat Weatherill is one of Europe’s leading performance storytellers. She has been creating and telling stories to adults and children for twelve years. She is also a best selling children’s author, with books translated into nine languages.   www.catweatherill.co.uk

          At the beginning of the year, I wrote about choosing a word to define the big picture of the coming year. I chose Discovery. Discovery is the word that best defines my new focus.

          Throughout my life I have made choices. There are a few that I regret, but not many that I would change. Even so, those choices limited other choices. When I chose not to return to college and take a job on the other side of the country from my parents, I cut many ties and limited my support circle, at least until I plugged into the new area. When I returned home, I turned my back on opportunities there to explore opportunities nearer to my family. When I married, I no longer sought out romantic relationships. When I had children, I chose to spend the majority of my time caring for them. (I also made conscious choices to spend time away from them or force them to care for themselves, as appropriate.) With every choice I made, my other available choices changed or were limited, narrowing my focus and goals.

          I now find myself in a season where my choices have vastly expanded. There are few true limitations on how I can choose to spend the time left to me. My age may be one limitation, but not a huge one. I may not be able to study medicine and become a surgeon . . .but I don’t want to. So I don’t feel limited by not being able to be a doctor. As I evaluate my life and make new choices that will determine what the next season will look like, I realize I need a short season of Discovery. Actually, I realize I’ve already embarked on this new season . . . and it has been full of new experiences and new discoveries in the midst of old, familiar experiences.

          The summer was spent in road trips to visit important family and friends. I didn’t get to visit everyone important to me, but I did get to visit many. And I had long conversations with others. Relationships are being reconnected, forgotten family history rediscovered. I’m exploring new relationships with my adult children. (And adding a daughter-in-love!) I’ve investigated several options for employment and careers. My latest choice is to return to college.

          What am I Discovering? Well, I’m rediscovering what it’s like to work a night shift . . . utilizing new skills I learned in a course I took. (And I’ve discovered I don’t want to stay at this job much longer.). I’m discovering adult children can be even more fun than little ones. They can also disappear for days or weeks, never realizing how much I miss them. (But it really is a joy to see them becoming fully matured adults.) I’m also discovering what it is like to attend college. (Well, that’s actually a rediscovery. But college at 52 is a lot different than college at 19.)

          I enrolled in the university that is in our town. I’m going to discover new things about life and people and subjects as I attend college. One of those new things is art. (I decided to explore my creative side. I hope that focusing on other creative endeavors will release the creative block that is hampering my writing . . . and my life.) I’m taking 2 art classes. One class is drawing. We spend almost 3 hours drawing. As I shade and draw and color, I have had plenty of time the think. My mind usually just wanders, never really lighting on a subject. I’ve noticed, though, that I find myself seeing other opportunities to draw., desiring more time to draw and seeking to learn how to achieve certain effects.

          That reawakening and rediscovering is expanding into other areas of my life, too. In other words, as I Discover, my appetite for Discovery grows. I’m coming alive. Appropriate, don’t you think, seeing that spring is just around the corner?

          Come grow with me!

My friend Janice is enjoying a milestone moment. A major traditional publisher will release her novel, Accused, tomorrow! I asked Janice if she would stop by and tell us a little about her journey.

Routine
1. A customary or regular course of procedure.
2. Commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specified intervals; typical or everyday activity: the routine of an office.
3. Regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, or rote procedure.

I begin with the definition of ‘routine’ for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve always wondered if the path to publication for my novel Accused was routine. And second, I realized that the very thing that can make a book ready for publication is commonplace, regular, and unvarying.

Accused, my first book with Tyndale House Publishers, is set for release February 1. It’s ironic to me that Accused is also the first book I ever attempted to write, and the first to be rejected many times. This, I’ve learned, is routine; every writer experiences rejection at one time or another. Few writers can write a perfect first draft that is sold immediately to their first choice publisher. (Can anyone?)

I’ve always loved to read, and when I stepped over the line to try and write a novel, the biggest question in my mind was: Do I have the talent to be a writer?  When I attended a small writer’s conference and heard a speaker say that anyone willing to work hard and study their craft could be a writer, I set about learning the craft, and I dreamed of having a novel bearing my name published by a traditional publishing house.

I’d been writing police reports for a few years and I had to unlearn “the facts, please, only the facts.” To learn the craft of writing novels, I read a lot of books by successful authors on how to write a novel. I read books by successful authors in my genre, Chandler, Block, Crais, Grafton etc. I also read best sellers in all genres, wondering if there were a similar thread in the prose, a trick there I could learn to help me be successful.

Alongside the reading, I was writing. I had an idea for a suspense novel and I wrote and rewrote, wrote and rewrote. I probably drove friends crazy with, “Can you read this bit and tell me how it sounds?” What helped me the most was finding a mentor who was a published author and then a group of writers to talk to and work with through the learning process.

When I thought I’d finally gotten it all down, and printed out what I was sure was the final, perfect draft of my novel, I was certain publishers would fall all over themselves to buy it. I’d followed directions, hadn’t I? Surely that meant success.

It wasn’t success, it was the beginning of a lot of rejection and a lot more hard work. Now came the commonplace, the regular and the unvarying routine of revision, revision, and revision. I’d read in one writing book that a writer needed to go through their manuscript until they were sick of it, then go through it one more time.

A lot of people at this point might say, “What is the point? Why didn’t you just self-publish and forget traditional publishers?”

Because that wasn’t my dream.

Back to routine. The path to publication for me was a lot of hard work, a lot of study and a lot of writing and rewriting. Now, on February 1, 2012, the dream I pursued will come to fruition. My novel will be published by a large, traditional publisher. But what I’ve found even more gratifying than a publishing contract is when someone says to me, “I picked up your book and couldn’t put it down!”

It was a routine of study, reading, writing and re-writing that produced a book I can’t wait to see in bookstores.

If you have any questions for Janice, please leave a comment. She’d love to hear from you!

A retired Long Beach, California, police officer of 22 years (16 in uniform and 6 as a non-career officer), Janice Cantore worked a variety of assignments – patrol, administration, juvenile investigations and training. During the course of her career in uniform Janice found that faith was indispensable to every aspect of the job. She published articles on faith at work, one for a quarterly newspaper called “Cop and Christ”, and another for the monthly magazine “Today’s Christian Woman”.

With retirement, Janice began to write longer pieces and several novels were born. She has a two-book suspense series in print that she calls Brinna’s Heart Series, The Kevlar Heart and A Heart of Justice (Oaktara Publishing). Janice is excited and honored to now be a part of the Tyndale House Publishing family. Accused, the first installment in her new suspense offering, The Pacific Coast Justice Series, is set to be released February 1, 2012, and will kick off a brand new chapter in her writing career. In addition to suspense and action, her books feature strong female leads. Janice writes suspense novels designed to keep you engrossed and leave you inspired.

You can connect with Janice on Facebook and on her web site.

It’s January and it’s Monday. Beginnings make me feel like it’s time to hurry up and get moving. I’m a morning person (when I’ve slept well) and mornings make me feel that way, too. Hurry up! Go running and eat breakfast and hurry to your computer! So much to do! (Or on more embarrassing days – Hurry and get to your computer! What do you mean it’s dinner time? I haven’t even taken a shower, let along exercised or anything else!)

There’s so much to do because there’s so much to learn. I spent all day last Thursday just trying to read through some of the online group posts about writing and publishing and self-publishing, and then clicking the links to the great posts those people had found, which led to more links and reading more posts. Sheesh! How’s a girl to get any writing done?

But there’s a lot more to being a 21^st century author than there was to being a 1950s author. Not only do you have to learn a lot, you have to do a lot. I took Kristen Lamb’s class on Becoming a Brand two weeks ago and now I’m trying to do everything I’ve been learning about. I’m following more people on Twitter and Facebook, retweeting and replying, and commenting on blogs. I think I did a week’s worth of social media in one day.

I saw some immediate results (I tripled my Twitter followers and got my own blog up and rolling again), so I downloaded the Kindle samples of both of Kristen’s books, Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer and We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media. I loved the samples, so I bought the books. I’m reading both at the same time now, and trying to apply something new every day. Wow.

There are a gazillion great blogs out there and I read a lot of them last week! (This week, I swear, is going to be more about writing and balance.) Instead of trying to explain everything I read, I’ll just give you some short descriptions and you can decide what you can use.

Oh, and in case I lose you somewhere amongst all these links, let me remind you that Author Crush Month starts on Wednesday! Yay!! We love Author Crush Month, and we know you do, too! We’ve got some really great guests this month talking about their process, their craft, their journey. Be sure to stop by every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in February.

Also, we will have a special guest joining us on the first Tuesday of every month beginning in March. You’re going to love her! (You might even already know her!)

And tune in tomorrow as we welcome Janice Cantore to talk with us about her new book, Accused. If you remember, Janice has been struggling to sell her books with a small press but last summer signed a 3-book deal with a major publisher! Her new book releases February 1^st. Woo-hoo!

And now to my list o’ links:

Elizabeth Spann Craig explains how she uses Google Calendar to stay organized

An online self-publishing conference! I’m waiting by my Inbox for an email with details about registration costs.

The CEO of Smashwords gives us his thoughts on self-publishing in 2011

A Smashwords blog post about the Amazon Select program

I took an awesome online class in November about helping your brain work better, and the teachers wrote this guest post

I’m signed up for another online class next month on how to write cozy mysteries, and here is an article by the teacher (I’m hoping it will help me bring my superhero romantic comedies up a level)

A great craft post from Jody Hedlund on how to make your book play out like a movie

Another self-published author, PJ Sharon, shares her 2011 numbers

From Kristen Lamb’s blog, What’s the Problem with FREE?

Sharpen Your Blogging Habits, a 4-part series from Kristin Nador

Which could lead you to this brilliant post on creating better tag lines for your blog  (I just changed my tag line for my own blog. What do you think? Better? Not quite right yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!)

From Bob Mayer, a post that explains why I’ve never dreamed of being on a bestselling list, I dream of selling books for the rest of my life 

From Writer Beware, The Fine Print of iBooks Author, free software from Apple to create ebooks that can only be sold in the iTunes store

And the blog author’s reply to common misconceptions about what he wrote

Books I’m reading: Are You There Blog? It’s Me, Writer; We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media; Dollars and Sense: The Definitive Guide to Self-Publishing Success

I’ve been working on edits for this one project for months. And months. Last week I realized that I have lost all perspective on my edits. I can no longer tell if the changes I’m making are making the story better or just different. It also seems to be taking a lot of time to make small changes.

*Step Away From the Manuscript*

Ever since I sent those dreaded first 50 pages out for critique (again!) in early December I have been following through on the remaining pages in anticipation of my critiquer’s suggestions. But now I need to resist the urge to go back in. If an idea pops up, I’ll just have to write it in the notebook for later.

*Cleanse the Palate*

However, I’m having trouble getting into the swing of my next project. My brain seems to be requesting some time to relax before I require it to hold all the new plot pieces and character arcs together. Like eating a cracker between wine tastings to cleanse the palate, I need to do something to reset my mind, to create that blank space and make room for a new novel.

*Take the Time*

Gardening is my writing foil. I find it challenging (most plants die on me) and beautiful (succulents, anyone?) and life-affirming (organic food to feed the fam). I find these same attributes in my writing life, but gardening comes with less pressure to perform. I don’t ever plan to become a professional gardener so I can play and experiment and kill things off, only to plant more seeds and see what happens. And I don’t have to send any of my produce off to an agent or editor!

As writers, we need perspective on life—our stories comment on it. We need perspective on the publishing business—hard to break into it. And we need perspective on our own writing—get far enough away so we can see it for what it is.

Here are some of the succulents I've kept alive for over 6 months. A record!

          Am I a writer? Am I really a writer? I haven’t written much more than jounals and letters to long-distance friends and family. If I’m not producing, am I still a writer?

          This time last year I was on the cusp of an emotional storm. Spiraling into debilitating depression, I clung to the few things I thought were unchanging. My marriage. My family. My writing. My faith. I clung and I tried to force joy and purpose into and from them. The more I tried, the greater the pain and, ironically, the greater the emotional disconnect.

          Then I had a realization that made all the disparate pieces of emotional turmoil fall into place. The relationship I’d assumed was based on mutual caring and respect and goodwill was, in fact, more a relationship of control and manipulation. In the throes of emotional shock and riddled with confusion and uncertainty, I made a decision to separate from my husband. I realized that only by removing myself from the situation could I ever hope to change it.

          And I did hope to change it. I wanted to transform an unhealthy, destructive relationship into a mutually caring and beneficial one. While I hoped my husband would desire the same and be willing to work through the issues troubling our relationship, I knew I could only make choices for me. I chose emotional health.

          The ensuing months were a roller coaster ride. I felt out of control. I was numb . . . or in agony. I wallowed in despair . . .or clambered to a place of hope. I clung to a few friends or family . . . or I isolated myself. Up and down. Back and forth. Little by little, I made my way through the conflicting emotions and issues. Eventually I found direction. Maybe not full resolution yet, but at least hope and direction.

          And the one constant? (Besides my faith, that is. My faith is actually the bedrock that has kept my from sinking into despair and shame.) Next to my faith, what consistently persisted in my life? Writing. It took awhile for me to recognize it, but I never really lost my writing.

          Yes, I lost the ability to create stories. I even lost some of my coherency. What had been easy, became hard. And along with the struggle to put words to paper/screen came the whispers of despair and futility. Why try? I wasn’t a “real” writer, after all. No one was paying to read my work. No one was interested in what I had to say. Half the time I didn’t even know what I wanted to say. It didn’t matter. It probably wasn’t even worth reading.

          All that is probably true. I kept writing anyway. I kept fighting the undertow trying to pull me into a silent sea. I journaled; I talked with friends, in real time and chat time. I read voraciously. Mostly non-fiction related to my issues, but now more fiction.

          Words are a writer’s sustenance and fruit. Words , both the creating and the devouring, kept this writer alive. The need to put words to what I was experiencing kept me journalling. That helped me work through the issues and to see them more clearly. The have-to task of writing this blog each week kept me struggling to find words, kept me from giving up. The multitudinous self-help and relational books I read gave me words for my experiences. That, in turn, kept my journaling. Around and around, that spiral of reading and writing, writing and reading drew this writer upwards toward a healthier future.

          I didn’t recognize it until recently. When, a few weeks ago, Kitty and Shonna asked if I wanted to take a break from having to blog every week, I almost panicked. Yes, I wanted, even craved, a break. It would be so nice to not have to come up with something to write each week. Instinctively, though, I knew removing that writing task would spiral me back into that numb shock-like state. Just like a physical therapist pushing, cajoling and ordering a stroke victim to move their finger, lift that eyebrow, so writing this post each week heeps me engaged with life. Writing is my lifeblood.

          Answer: Yes! I am a writer! Are you?

This year, my blog here is going to be all about self-publishing but in the context of being a writer first. As a writer, I’m interested in any opportunity where I get to write stories that make me happy and where readers are going to find and enjoy them. With that in mind, I’ve just submitted a short story to an anthology. Yay!

The good news is that I made the deadline with a half hour to go. LOL!

The rough part was the 48 hours before that deadline.

Oh. My. Gosh. What was I thinking? I quickly got to that point where I was sure I not only sucked as a writer, but was completely delusional as a human being. Why, oh why, had I ever quit accounting?

I’d had the idea to take the discarded beginning of my superhero novel and create a short story about how the couple met. I thought it would be fun and I could put it on my web site for free to introduce readers to the characters. That way, when the novel came out, there would already be readers waiting.

But it had been longer than I thought since I last looked at that beginning. When I was ready to start working on it, in fact, I found two totally different beginnings. Hmm, right. I remember now. Some books have a dozen beginnings before you figure out what the heck you’re trying to do.

No worries. I’ll take the best sections from these two and craft a short story out of them.

Um…except I’ve never really written a short story. I’m a novel girl.

Yeah, I started this whole thing grass-backwards.

So. It’s 48 hours before the deadline. I think I’ve got a pretty good version ready to polish. I sit my butt in the chair at the beginning of the day and find an email from a writer friend with an awesome checklist for polishing. I write her back and tell her I love her. I open my file and start working.

I see something that doesn’t work. It needs to be changed and I have an idea on how to improve it. Ooo, I like it. But I have to go change this other thing to work with the improvement. Hmm, which means this other thing doesn’t work.

I knock my head against the wall and my husband tells me he believes in me. I try again. This sucks. It still doesn’t work. This really sucks. Maybe I should just let this deadline pass me by. The anthology is a fundraiser for my chapter so I won’t make any money (which means I’m not losing any by backing out), and no one is counting on my name to sell books so it won’t hurt the chapter if I’m not there.

I open my email again (because that’s what you do when your writing freaks you out) and find a couple emails from other chapter mates who are also racing toward the deadline. I decide not to give up yet.

I make some other changes. There are still problems. I wander out to the kitchen to find something healthy to snack on. I eat almonds instead of chocolate. John tells me again that I rock and I can do it. I promise him gratitude sex when this is all over. He tells me I really rock.

I keep trying. The next day I find several things that really have to be done before I start writing again. Really. Very important. Trust me.

After a few hours, I ask John if we can switch computers so I can change positions. My butt hurts. I take the laptop to the couch near the fireplace. Apparently the change has shaken something free in my brain. I realize the broken sections need to be deleted not fixed.

A few years ago I found a way to delete stuff that didn’t cause me heart palpitations – a new document called “Deleted Stuff.” Yeah, baby. Over the next few hours I deleted one third of the story. Wow. Then I read it again. I’m a genius.

It’s 8pm and the deadline is at midnight. I’m freakin’ exhausted. But it’s not done, and now I’m committed.

It’s 10:30pm and I’m no longer terrified of what my friends will think when they read this. But it’s not perfect. Keep working.

It’s 11:15pm and John asks me if I’m awake. My eyes are open, but he thinks I’ve learned a new skill. I finish the final read without moving anything but my mouse finger and my eyelids. I move to the other computer and re-read the submission guidelines and attach the document to the email.

I hit Send.

And I tell myself that when I get some sleep, I’m going to feel pretty darn good about myself.

I’ve just got to tell you about my new writing routine. It combines one of my favorite things—learning about writing—with one of my least favorite—cooking/cleaning in the kitchen.

Let’s back up to July when I signed up for a free webinar: “Translating Rejection Letter Lingo: What To Do about a ‘Flat’ Story.” The webinar was part of Deborah Halverson book launch for Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies. She conducted the webinar with author/illustrator Katie Davis.

By participating in the webinar, I landed on Katie’s email list.

Now, Katie is a picture book author. So after a few newsletters that I didn’t bother to open—because Katie is a picture book author and I’m a novelist in training—I decided I better unsubscribe and clear out my inbox. BUT, I decided to  read one before unsubscribing.

So. Glad. I. Did.

There was this brief mention of Katie’s podcast Brain Burps About Books. I made a note of it and went on my merry way. *Did not unsubscribe because I wanted another reminder if I forgot about the podcast.*

Eventually the podcast made its way to my iPod. And I finally got around to giving it a listen.

Wow! These are great. She is so funny and personable, and she’s had some really good guests on air. Not just picture book people! Middle grade and YA authors included. (And general marketing tips for you grown-up writers!)

Anyways, all that to say my cooking sessions have gotten a lot more interesting for me thanks to my iPod and Brain Burps. You might want to check it out too!

          I tend to “cocoon” when under stress. Another way to describe it is that I hide my head in the sand. I ignore the world around me, my focus narrows to include only those things that directly impact me. I ignore everything else. If I don’t know about things, they can’t bother me, right? I realize that isn’t true and that it really is important for me to know what is happening in the world around me. Even so, it is often difficult generate enough interest to read news articles or even listen to a news show.

          Because of my head in the sand tendencies, I’ve only recently learned of the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Address) bills coming before Congress next week. It was my daughter’s Facebook post about Wikipedia’s blackout that alerted me to the legislation.

          In the limited research I’ve done, I’ve learned that many websites are doing similar awareness-inducing posts. Not everyone is blocking their site, but many, like Google are posting notices. I decided to join the effort.

          I’m a writer. Copyright and intellectual property rights are important to me. I’m also an American. Freedom is important to me. And I believe strongly that the government should be minimally involved in . . . anything.

          I still need to do my own research on these two bills to know my full opinion. I’m not ready to enter the blackout with these other sites. (Not to mention the fact that Kitty and Shonna and I haven’t even discussed it. ) I do believe, however, that it is worth my time and the effort it will cost me to pull my head out of the sand and look around. I need to learn more.

          In an effort to increase awareness of the issue, I’m sharing some of the sites I’ve discovered. I’m sure they will lead to many more.

• Links to more information about SOPA and PIPA; Scroll down page for a video.
• Cinema Blend article about SOPA and PIPA
• NY Times article about protest of SOPA and PIPA.
• Blog about Googles plan to protest SOPA

          I’m off to study!