Sunday, November 22, 2009

Putting Myself Out There

This week, I created a Fan Page for myself at Facebook, and started a Twitter account. It’s a strange feeling to be promoting myself like this. I’ve gotten used to have a small following at my display site, but these are my first steps outside of the protective bubble of that site. So far, I have sixteen fans, and I sincerely hope to grow that number this week.


As a writer, I have struggled to share my work with people out of--what? Fear I guess. Fear that people won’t like it, that they’ll think I’m foolish for wanting to be a writer, or wanting to be published. But, the reality is, writing for myself just isn’t that fun. If my writing never finds another audience, I won’t stop--I can’t, I love it too much. But let’s face it, every writer dreams of seeing their name in print.


In the information age, part of the skills set of a writer is to have an on-line presence. And, I’m very serious about doing this on a professional level, so here I am. It’s been a liberating and a terrifying experience to have people find out what I’ve been doing with all my free time, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive. It just goes to show that the boogeyman is rarely anything more than a pair of pants draped over the back of your chair, or a trick of light. My worries about the opinions of my family and friends have turned out to be illusion.



I’ve been thinking I should use this blog to do something more than spill the contents of my brain on the web. My friend Jessie uses hers to talk about the process of writing. So, starting next week, I’m going to work on sharing a bit of my process with you. Hopefully, it will be interesting at least and helpful at best. If anyone out there is a writer, or would like to be, I hope you’ll be able to find something thought-provoking or useful as we delve into this area together.


Stay tuned.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

What Haps Abound?

It’s a good news, bad news week. Let’s break it down by category:


Health: The bad news is that I’ve got some annoying virus that has once again given me laryngitis. The good news is...well, I guess that fact that I only have a virus and nothing worse.


Queries: The bad news is that I was on the receiving end of some more rejection. The good news is that the agent in question gave me some helpful feedback. At this point, feedback is as good as gold to me, so I’m going to take some of his suggestions and head back to the drawing board.


My Current Project: Last Call is progressing nicely. I’ve crossed the 65,000 word mark (chapter 20!) Today, however, my brain is fried (damn virus) and I’m not getting much done.


Other Writing News: I just entered a contest sponsored by St. Martin’s Press. I was thrilled to discover that they are investigating a new branch of the publishing tree that they are calling “New Adult.” It’s all about stories for adults that are young (like, 18-25) who are moving out of the Young Adult genre, but not really finding what they want from traditional adult fiction. Sounds right up my alley! The only bad news here is that the competition looks stiff.


I guess that about covers it for my personal pity party. Oh, no wait! There’s more!


What I need in life is more writing time. See, I’m still in the middle ofLast Call and I’ve got two rewrites tantalizing me from the sidelines. On top of that, I have ideas for new projects rattling around in there. I know, I know...these are good problems to have. And here I am, blogging. Badly.


A dear friend of mine once said that her idea of heaven is a world where she can type in the air and her words would all transcribe with perfect spelling and punctuation. If anyone knows how to accomplish that, please contact me ASAP. Also feel free to contact me for any other lil’ ol’ reason. Especially if it involves chocolate.