Humor and Inspire Me, Buddy!

Back to the Blog

I follow many writer’s blogs, and lately I’ve been unsure what I could possibly add to the writing/author blog-o-sphere. Hence, my longer than usual absence. (Okay, in the spirit of honesty, that may be my brain making excuses.)

But my brain kept saying things like...my blog post needs to be interesting, enticing, entertaining, new, knowledgeable, perky, pretty--STOP--too much pressure. (I feel a migraine coming on.)

So... I asked myself. What do I enjoy in the zillion blogs I read? (Okay, might be an exaggeration or a form of procrastination, take your pick.)

What I like best in blog posts:

Humor. Inspiration. Camaraderie. 

Plus, I like the post to be short, less than a minute read time. (can we say ADHD)

Oh, and visuals--love me a pretty photo.

So... in the spirit of a short, humorous, inspiring, buddy-to-buddy blog post, I give you

Humor: 

A writer died and was given the option of going to heaven or hell.

She decided to check out each place first. As the writer descended into the fiery pits, she saw row upon row of writers chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they were repeatedly whipped with thorny lashes.

"Oh my," said the writer. "Let me see heaven now."

A few moments later, as she ascended into heaven, she saw rows of writers, chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they, too, were whipped with thorny lashes.

"Wait a minute," said the writer. "This is just as bad as hell!"

"Oh no, it's not," replied an unseen voice. "Here, your work gets published."

Inspiration: 

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage--as long as you edit brilliantly.”

C.J. Cherryh

Camaraderie:  

There’s no instant feedback for writer’s. Instant happens in the time it takes for something like this to occur.

(Photos of New Zealand, Courtesy of Chris Marin)

As always feel free to comment and/or offer what you like to see in the blogs you read.

Ode to Revision

A Royally Rotten Red Day, a children's story I conceived and first wrote ten years ago and has been revised, and revised and revised, is now published in Spread Your Wings by knowonder!  I've always loved this story about a mother and daughter both having one of those days!

- a collection of 

Princess and Dragon stories -

Spread Your Wings, written by professional children’s authors from around the world, is a collection of original Princess and Dragon stories that will inspire and delight both you and your child. Adventures, love, mysteries, magic, and more wait for you in this exciting collection of timeless treasures.

Designed to be read aloud to children of all ages, these stories teach and instill a love of reading - the most important aspect in developing literacy - as well as create many magical moments spent together in each other’s arms.

Here's the Blurb:

A Royally Rotten Red Day: a stressed out Princess is having a royally rotten day, and so is her mother, the Queen, causing the sun in the kingdom to turn from a sunny yellow to a deep dark red.  At the launching of the Royal Navy's newest ship, a soaking catastrophe alerts the Queen and Princess to the problem and together they wiggle, snort and stomp away the red. 

One Writer's "Blind Faith"

Once again, I'm pleased to host my fellow writer and good friend Sandra Tilley to my blog.

Sandra Tilley has a new novellla released this month and serendipitously the title of her new release is "BLIND FAITH".

I say serendipitously because once I read Sandra's answers to my interview questions I realized the title of her release also describes her writerly journey for this story. And I'm all about the writerly journey.

Read how Sandra's "blind faith" produced "Blind Faith".

Here's Sandra:

Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me back on your blog, Suzanne. I love reading it, and it’s a special treat to be on it.

Tell us about writing in this new genre. What genre would you classify “Blind Faith?” and your

target audience?

My new release “Blind Faith” was an experiment. At every level.  Even though it’s being marketed as romantic suspense, “Blind Faith” is a supernatural story about a young college couple faced with a serious dilemma, thus targeting the young twenty-something readers called New Adults. 

I know for a fact you used a different process to write this story.  Tell us about it.

Some of my best friends ( Suzanne included) are pantsters. But the idea of writing pantster-style, without the safety net of my exhaustive outlines filling page after page in my legal pad, made this hard-line plotter hyperventilate. And I can’t count the number of eye rolls and head shakes my friends endured when they would tell me that they just “wrote,” and the story came to them. Until I wrote “Blind Faith.” 

My pantster friends were right. I started writing, and my characters took over. I wanted to write a science fiction story about a GPS, but Emelyn and Daniel wanted to use the errant GPS for their own journey. The story took twists and turns I never expected, dipping my toe into a genre I never expected. 

I apologize to my pantster friends for the eye rolls, but I’m not ready for a membership card. Yet. While I love the spontaneity and surprises I encountered writing “Blind Faith,” I don’t know if I could maintain the level of stress of not knowing what was going to happen for a full-length novel.  

But now that I’ve tasted the pantster wine, I can’t go back to dull, lifeless outlines.  I will have to develop my own process to keep me on track yet still allow room for creative surprises!

Tell us the difference, for you, between writing novel length and novella length.

I love writing novellas. Not only for the obvious reason that it takes less time, but also because it means less meandering and staying focused and to the point. When you write a short story, novella, or novel, all the same concepts are at play: plot, dialogue, conflict, etc.  Think of our writing tools as shiny, round balls that we toss into the air and juggle until the project is finished. Writing a short story or novella compared to writing a novel cuts the juggling time and reduces the stress level. I still see writing novels in my future, but I can also see a series of novellas.

What did you learn after writing, submitting, and publishing this short story?

From my first word on the page to the published word on the e-book, I learned one valuable lesson: nothing in this business moves fast.  More like molasses on a cold morning.  

The only way to endure it is start another project. And another. And another.

Thanks so much for joining me on my blog, Sandra.  

Here's the cover and link to Sandra's new release.

A real bargain at only $0.99 on Amazon. And here's the link to Sandra's website. 

As always feel free to comment or ask Sandra any questions.

How to Deal with Falling Rocks Landing on the Writer's Road to Publication

I recently read an interesting article by Jack Canfield on Positively Positives’s blog about overcoming obstacles, and right away I thought about how this applies to the writer’s journey.

Are there obstacles standing between you and your finished published manuscript? 

Lack of time to write? 

Lack of money for conferences, workshops, babysitters? 

Not enough support from your family? 

The obstacles to getting published can seem so numerous, so obvious, and so tough to get past. And the way we deal with obstacles can take a lot of time, and energy away from our creative writing selves. Often the way we deal can keep the focus on the obstacle and not on our forward journey. Two of the most common negative responses to a rock thrown in our path is to explain the rock or to resist the rock.

Here’s Jack Canfield’s analogy of obstacles we may come across.

Imagine you’re driving down a scenic highway. Suddenly, you come to a huge rock in the middle of the road. You have the usual two options. Explain away how the rock ended up there, it must have come loose in a recent earthquake tremor. Or you might resist and complain about the carelessness of highway construction and the lack of government funding for rock removal. 

Or you could bypass all this negativity and just drive around the rock. 

                                                                                  Photo by Chris Marin - Hawaii

Which simply means... instead of asking WHY did this happen, ask WHAT can I do. It seems obvious, but it’s easy to get bogged down when rock, after rock, after rock seems to be dropped on your road to publication.

But look what this woman does with rocks: 

Photos by Jessica Purvis Vancouver, British Columbia June 2012

So instead of seeing the rocks thrown on your road as a STOP sign, which could derail all your efforts, maybe even cause you to give up for awhile, see the rock as a YIELD sign.  Slow down, ask what can I do, but keep moving forward on your writerly path.

And when I need to remind myself that the obstacles are part of being a writer, I think of this Thomas Mann quote:

            “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult   

                                                   than it is for other people.”

Feel free to comment on your obstacles, your ways to deal with them, or anything else.

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.