Walk in the Golden Slippers of a Golden Heart Finalist!

Please welcome to my blog newly published author Carol Post.  Her debut novel Midnight Shadows recently released with Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense. She’s here to inspire and encourage all of us on the winding, twisting road that is a writer’s journey with some tidbits from her journey to publication.

Walk us through your actual process of conceiving of a story through writing your book. The short version. LOL

I am very much a plotter. I come up with my main plot points, then start filling in the scenes in between. When I get everything pretty well mapped out, then I'm ready to start writing. I hear a lot of writers talk about how characters will come to them and just demand their stories. Not me. I get a plot idea, develop it, then decide what kind of characters belong in that story. And I don't dream my story ideas, either. Nope, I have to work for every one of them! 

You were a finalist in the Golden Heart, tell us about that experience and how you decided to enter? 

I started doing the contest circuit at the end of 2009, shortly after I joined RWA, and since the Golden Heart is such a prestigious contest, I knew I had to enter. I didn't final the first time, but I did the second, in 2012. About two months before finding out I was a finalist, I got the call that Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspense was going to publish the manuscript. Although I had already realized my dream of getting published, being a 2012 GH finalist has been very rewarding. The fifty-some finalists have formed a tightly-knit group where we share good news and bad (both writing and non-writing related) and encourage and support each other. We call ourselves the Firebirds, after the mythical creature that rises from the ashes to fly again. You can check out our blog at www.ghfirebirds.com. Every week we do Fiction Friday, where we post serial stories in four or five parts. One segment (except for the conclusion) ends with a cliffhanger and three choices for what happens next that the readers get to vote on. Then whichever choice wins, the next writer has to make that happen. It's a lot of fun.

Do you have a critique group, partner, etc?  How does that work for you? 

I belong to an awesome 4-person critique group. I write inspirational romantic suspense, one critique partner writes inspirational romance, one writes women's fiction and one writes fantasy. I like having CP's from several different genres. They each bring something different to the table. We all belong to the same writer's group, but all of our critiquing is handled online.

Have you been to any conventions?  Which ones?  Would you recommend any, some, all? 

I always go to the Romance Writers of America conference. The speakers are great, the workshops are informative, and it's an excellent opportunity to meet with editors and agents. The energy there is incredible - it's so invigorating being with hundreds of other writers. I always come away inspired. This year I'm planning to attend the American Christian Fiction Writers conference also.

Did you have to pitch? 

Yes, I've pitched a few times. And there's nothing more nerve-wracking! I wrote my last pitch on the plane on the way to RWA Nationals. I figured I'd get it memorized in pieces over the next two days. (Please don't take that as advice on how to do a successful pitch!) Well, I somehow got the appointment date confused and that night realized my pitch was actually the next morning. Fortunately, I memorize well under pressure! Surprisingly enough, that pitch actually ended up being the easiest. I arrived about 15 minutes early, and when I walked in, a writer I had met at Nationals the prior year remembered me and asked if I wanted to practice my pitch with her. After going through it once, one of the volunteers working the pitch sessions asked if I wanted to go early, that the appointment scheduled before mine didn't show up. They always line you up two minutes before your pitch time, and I spend that two minutes getting more and more nervous. This time I got to skip all that, followed the volunteer back and sat right down with Love Inspired's Melissa Endlich without ever having a chance to get nervous.

And here's what happened as a result of that pitch.  Amazon link here.

What one piece of advice would you give to aspiring authors? 

Join a writer's group. Writing is such a solitary activity, and it's so easy to get discouraged and want to quit. (At least it was for me. I quit more times than I can count before I found out about RWA.) I belong to the Tampa chapter of RWA, Tampa Area Romance Authors, and I know that if it weren't for the encouragement and support I've received from my fellow chapter mates, I wouldn't be published today.  Besides all the moral support that writing groups offer, the workshops and conferences give you the opportunity to constantly improve your craft.

What's next for you?  

For the immediate future, I plan to continue writing for Love Inspired Suspense. I just signed a contract for my next two books, one of which is completed. The other I sold on proposal and have until June 15 to finish it. Then I'll start plotting my next series, which will take place in a fictional Florida island community. I'll start the process with a weekend at Cedar Key with my critique partners. (Research is tough, but we've all got to do it!) 

Wow, I’m so jealous of your writer’s retreat in Cedar Key.  I can’t thank you enough for thoughtful answers. Good luck with your new release and the upcoming ones too.

As always feel free to comment.

To Blog or Not to Blog...

That seems to be the pseudo-Shakespearean question floating through the ether-sphere of writer's loops the last couple months.  I've been lapping up the pros and cons on this topic and am still not sure as to the answer.

Most writer's, me included started a blog as a form of social media to have a web presence and to show
agents, editors, publishers, readers that we are serious about our commitment as writers. However, blogging takes precious time away from the actual craft of writing books, which is one of the main points of the debate.  Another other point--how effective is a blog?

Numbers are thrown around in the thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands before the blog followers, tweeter following or Facebook fans before they are thought to be worthwhile.

Not happening here.  But once I commit to something I hate to give up so...

For now I will continue to blog, for my modest number of followers, myself and to throw a little something out there into the ether-sphere.

Being the Queen of Revision I found a quote this week from none other than Mark Twain that allows me to continue to my reign of perfection in revision land.

"The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." Mark Twain

  

Photo courtesy of Melissa Bowersock  and the Wana Commons

As always feel free to comment.

The Only Thing Skinny - My Fiction

A new term has been coined for short, short fiction, it’s called Skinny Fiction. 

Gary Taaffe may be the person responsible for the term, and he has a blog dedicated to this type of short. Writers are encouraged to send in stores with word limits less than flash. 10, 25, 50, at most 100 words. 

The most widely known and often quoted example of skinny fiction is by none other than Ernest Hemingway. The story goes that in response to a bet to write a story under ten words in length Hemingway did of course, with brilliance. Full of intrigue, mystery and emotion. He wrote:

Classified:  Baby Goods

        For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

During a flash fiction workshop with instructor Devon Ellington last month, an optional exercise to produce a twitter story of 140 characters or less piqued my muse. In the shower, where of course, the best ideas are spawned I came up with the idea for my first foray into skinny fiction.  I’m no Ernest Hemingway, but it was fun.

I’ve reformatted the story here from the 140 characters for twitter, to thirty words just for ease of reading. 

                    SOS

At sea. Dog and me. Feel so free. 

Dog died. I cried. 

So sad. Feel bad.

Got a cat. Imagine that.

Two days later, I hate her. 

Kitty-whipped. Abandoned ship.  

 

So at least something is getting skinny this year, if only my fiction. Wish my thighs would follow suit.

As always feel free to post your comments or your skinny fiction.

Another Step toward the Elusive Published Author

This blog is all about my journey toward publication, and to that end I have been successful. I have been published in online ezines, several times.  I won a prestigious contest, and the entry was published

in print in my college alumni magazine.  Is this publication success?  I'd like to think so, 

but how do you measure publication success?  

Not as easy as it once was with all the options now out there. Self-published, small press, big six, in-print..

Seeing your book on the bookshelves of the local bookstore, which was once the dream of every aspiring author, may slowly be an impossible goal.  Ereaders, smartphones, tablets, who reads a book anymore?  Many of us do, and I have been polling all the younger generation I come in contact with, much to my teenage children's horror, on the viability of the printed book.  So far the answer is still overwhelmingly--printed book.  Maybe they look at me and my wrinkles and think that is the right answer. LOL

But for me, being able to hold a printed edition in my hands is still something I long for and now I can. This past week I was published in an anthology The White Sail available on Amazon! 

I've never had anything available on Amazon before and it is a milestone.  I need to do an Amazon author page.  How cool is that? (baby steps for me, remember?) 

Even though the monetary reward is smaller, and the prestige probably not as great as the contest win, this is a big deal to me.  Another small step toward my even bigger goal of a book in print. You know the kind you can hold in your hands, and sign with wise words and the flourish of your practiced signature? (Okay, maybe that is only me)

By the way, you can also read my story here "Look Out for Fluffkins" here free.  But this in no way diminishes my excitement of the printed anthology :)

Feel free to comment on your small steps toward publication and how you measure success, or anything else you'd like to comment on.

Welcome Lionel Snodgrass

I’d like to welcome to my blog Paul Hewlett, a self-published children’s author.  Lionel Snodgrass is the main character in his newest release Lionel's Christmas Adventure: Lionel Learns the True Meaning of Christmas. 

Paul, tell us what inspired you to become an author.

I've always had a vivid imagination and I love to people watch. I may see someone in a crowd dressed in something outlandish and in my mind, I create a background or story explaining it. That kind of morphed into putting things down on paper. At that point no matter what I wrote it came out best suited as a children's book.

You self-publish your books, which to me has SCARY written all over it. Why did you self-publish. and tell us a little bit about the process?

Ha, I decided to self-publish in large part to the ever growing mountain of rejection letters I was accumulating. I began to look into it and decided it was indeed a viable option. Well, the process is very daunting. I owe a great deal of thanks to Melissa Foster and her WLC website. She is certainly there for the aspiring or even established author. In self-publishing there is so much to learn and it changes all the time. I owe so much to all the wonderful folks that I have come in contact with and who have helped me. 

There's so much to self-publishing that I'll just sum up the essentials. First, have a great story. You can ensure that it is up to par by having beta readers and critique groups read it. Second, have a professional cover. Third, professional editing. Those are key, don't skip any of those, or the other things you don won't matter.

What was the hardest part of self-publishing?

To me, it's reaching my target audience. That is a constant challenge. There is a lot to be said for the exposure one gets via social media, but for me, are children looking at that? Probably not. You have to research and identify your target audience and then find ways to reach them. 

What’s the most fun in self-publishing?

I think it's the fact that you are promoting and marketing your product. The return is all yours. You're not out trying to sell shower curtain rings (my apologies to all the shower curtain ring salesman out there, I know you  have a difficult job). It's your product, your baby, and that makes it all the more motivating and fun to work to put it in people's hands. 

I love your covers, who did the artwork and how did you find them?

Pat Sauber illustrated Lionel and did the first two covers. For Lionel's Christmas Adventure, Pat illustrated Lionel and I had LLPix Photography do the cover itself. Pat is an friend of a co-worker of mine and Laura, I found through my social media connections. 

Tell us about Lionel, your main character. He has some quirks which make him instantly relatable and likable.

I love Lionel. He is a lot of fun to write. Everyone has known a Lionel at some point in their life. He is the underdog and no matter how hard one may try it is very difficult not to root for him. 

How did you pick your setting?

I set the books in the late 1960's. I wanted to focus on the characters and their interactions. I felt by using that era that I could realistically strip away a good number of distractions that kids have today. Some of the things that Lionel does, he may not be doing if the books were set in modern day. He might be busy playing xbox or something. 

Tell us a little about writing a series?  The ups and downs?

The up is the fact that you don't have to spend a lot of time coming up with the characters and background for each book. Those are established. The down is trying to keep each book interesting and not just like the previous ones.  Each book is written to be able to stand on its own. That is also a major challenge. You don't want to bore returning readers with all the same background information, but you have to make sure that the first time reader understands what is going on and why. 

Does Lionel have another adventure coming up?

I have an idea for another book, but I might try something that I did with Lionel's Christmas Adventure. I asked my fans on Lionel's Grand Adventure Facebook page for some ideas for the Christmas book and they responded with some terrific ideas.  

I’ve been following the discussions on book trailers, and by the way I love the trailer you created for Lionel’s Christmas Adventure.  I’m not sure if it the snappy Christmas music you used but it is one of my FAVORITE BOOK TRAILERS. Have you found them to be beneficial to your sales?

The book trailer for Lionel's Christmas Adventure is the first one that I have done. I had mixed feelings about them, but had some very specific ideas for this one. I also felt that if I could keep it under one minute long it would be better (it's about 1:20). I've seen some that are 2:30-3:00 minutes long and I think that's too long to keep people's attention. I just released it Wednesday & the book isn't available yet, so I really don't have any data to support it one way or the other. I will be tracking it though.

Because I’m always curious about writers’ process tell me are you a plotter or pantster?

I've tried both. Up until Lionel's Christmas Adventure I had been a pantster. For the new book I tried a different approach. I outlined each chapter prior to writing it. I did find outlining the chapters beneficial. It gave me a little more guidance as to where I wanted to go with the story and kept me focused. I'm still a bit of a pantster though, since I do not sit down and plot the whole story through and through prior to writing.  

What is the most difficult part of the writing process?  How do you prevail?

For me, it's getting the whole story down on paper. I don't have much trouble coming up with ideas, but filling in the blanks between the ideas and making it a book is the toughest part. I prevail by writing, and I mean writing--longhand. I write the rough draft on paper. It enables me to keep my mind flowing, no distractions. 

What comes easiest?

Rewriting or revising. That's my favorite part. Once I have written the rough draft, I turn it over to my critique group and beta readers and let them pick it apart. I love taking that feedback and revising. That, to me is not only the easiest part, but also the most enjoyable. 

Any advise for aspiring authors?

Once you decide that it's what you want to do. Write, write, and write some more. It is the very best way to improve your craft. And remember, you have only failed if you give up. 

I read you are a dog lover.  So here’s a photo of Paul’s dog JoJo.

Yes, I am a huge dog lover. We adopted him from the local shelter a couple of years ago and he is the best dog. I am a firm believer in adopting pets, but that is for another interview.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.  Be sure to check out any of Lionel’s Adventures on 

Amazon or on Facebook

As always feel free to comment or ask questions of Paul.

Halfway Point - NaNoWriMo

I hope your NaNoWriMo words are spilling forth.

Mine are not spilling, they’re dribbling. I’m not quite at the word count I should be. Halfway today I should be at 25,000 words, but I’m not too far off just over 22,000. I blame football, my craft shows, and not enough coffee, not necessarily in that order.

And now I’ve been tagged by my good friend and multi-published author Jillian Chantal in a game called Zig-zag you can read about it here. 

I’m supposed to find in my WIP the word look and post the surrounding text. Pretty scary stuff, since this is a fast first draft, without revision - think vomiting on the page. But I’ve always been a good sport, so I’ll play along and tag five more writers.

Here’s a peek into my vomit on the page middle grade contemporary with a working title that's supposed to keep me focused on the main character's goal--Can Hertz Survive a Screenless Summer?

Pops sits and whacks my back so hard I almost fall off the stool. “I had to bring Hert in to try your pancake sundae. First day of his summer vacation.”  He points at a framed certificate to the right of the chalkboard. “Look up there. What did I tell you. Best Pancake Sundae in Arizona.” 

Pete steps in with a pot of coffee. “You probably figured out this is the only place in the state you can get a pancake sundae.” He edges closer to me and lowers his voice. “Word of advise. Never teach your mom photoshop. The first certificate she printed up had a life-sized photo of my face on it.”

Pops chuckles and turns over a cup resting upside down in a saucer in front of him. “You never showed me that certificate.”

“I didn’t show it to anyone.”

Five of you’ve been tagged

Sher Hart

Paul Hewlett

Liz Flaherty

Holly Vance

Marian L

For all of you participating in NaNoWriMo

May your words flow steadily for the rest of the month and provide an endless lake of possibility at the end.

As always feel free to comment.

NaNoMo - Trading Blood for Callouses

I have never been able to do the official National Novel Writing Month as I have a seasonal business that keeps me busy through the fall months of October, November and December.

My business--OneWiredWoman makes the rounds of local craft fairs. With the help of copious amounts of caffeine and artistic wire, I will literally wire until my fingers bleed during the fall months.

But this year I am trimming my wiring timetable and I am committing to doing NaNoMo. I expect to still use copious amounts of caffeine, and although my fingers might not bleed, I'm expecting some callouses.

I have done a Fast Draft Class with Candace Havens which is a two week, write until you drop class.
(I highly recommend it and her Revision Hell Class too.)

I have done Savvy Authors Bootcamp in May. But I am excited to be participating in a worldwide event for authors. I have even talked a couple friends into joining me.

And I'm plotting! Yes!  As a confirmed panster I signed up for Todd Stone's Prepping for NaNoMo class with Savvy Authors this month and I have been reading blogs, listening to webinars and chats while walking the fine line of plotting.  You see if I plot too much I don't want to write the story.  My subconscious says "Why write it?  You know what happens."  But I know I won't have time to mull around what happens next so I'm working on figuring out some of the major plot points while not going too deep with the plotting.

Another tool I plan to use.  Free writes.  Remember those? Old-fashioned pen to paper, a timer, and a prompt. They are very freeing, very creative and words fly!  So if I get stuck I plan on free writing, using prompts applicable to what comes next or character interviews, dialogue between characters, etc.  I don't expect all of the free writes to make it into the manuscript. Maybe a few tidbits, nuggets of gold will end up on the page, but you never know.  At least, it may keep me from staring at a blank screen and/or running to the fridge or wine cabinet. LOL.

I'm looking forward to the camaraderie, the pep talks, the challenge and the creativity of NaNoMo. Maybe you'll join me, spwriter500 on the NaNoMo website.

As always feel free to comment and share.