I don’t do new year resolutions. Resolutions to me, one either succeeds at the resolution or fails. No in between. I don’t think that’s a sustainable way to better yourself. You’re gonna have ups and downs and you have to accommodate for the ebbs and flows of life… Continue reading On Writing: Poem a Day Challenge
As I was going through collecting and collating all my writing from 2020 and 2021, I was feeling bummed about my lack of writing. It wasn’t until I was about an hour into organising things that I realised, I had more than I thought. Not only did I have all my poetry and short stories from both years, in 2021, I revisited, re-edited, and republished … Continue reading musings during a pandemic + more
As I trudge along, writing the novel that I have been working on since at least the year 2000, no joke there, the thought “maybe you really don’t want to be a writer” came to me as I hit a block of text where I have no idea what to write. NO. IDEA. BLANK. EMPTY. The words aren’t vibing. The scene feels stiff and inflexible … Continue reading Maybe I Don’t Want to be a Writer
I have started working on finalizing THE SOUND OF MADNESS to be self-published. I originally wanted to have it self-published in January, but it didn’t feel right so I kind of pushed it aside. When I self-published BARFLY in December 2014, it was for me. It was me conquering my fear of putting “my baby” out there for the world. I knew I could handle rejection from … Continue reading Self-Publishing Lesson: Don’t Rush
While watching one of my favorite television shows a new character was introduced. So when the television character’s name was said, I sighed. Not a good sigh. A “are you fucking serious?!?” sigh. How could this character be named this name of all names in the free f’ing world. OF ALL THE NAMES!! Continue reading KILL YOUR DARLINGS
I have three beginnings for my WIP (work in progress) that I’m calling Goliath. (This is not the real title, it’s just that it’s my Goliath, my Mount Everest as I said in my post “Following Your Joy”.) I’ve been struggling with which one would be the best beginning for this novel. I have written and scraped, rewritten and re-scraped, and put this process on repeat more times than I should have. Continue reading THE RIGHT BEGINNING
Well, it finally happened. I published BARFLY. It wasn’t through traditional means. I didn’t find an agent who found me a publisher who gave me a book deal. I am self publishing it. I can’t begin to tell you how many rejection letters I received for BARFLY. Most of the rejection letters were form rejection letters, “the dreaded cut-and-paste letter that all writers receive no matter … Continue reading BARFLY: Now Available in Paperback and for Kindle
Rejection letter two on THE SOUND OF MADNESS. It’s funny when I receive a reply from an agent, I automatically think, well there’s another rejection letter. Lloyd Dobler in SAY ANYTHING said it best “If you start out depressed everything’s kind of a pleasant surprise.” If I don’t get my hopes up, I’m not crushed when it’s an agent that says no. Now as a … Continue reading Another Dose of Rejection
And so it begins… Putting yourself out there and being rejected. I don’t mean from a potential mate, but from potential agents. The query process can make or break a writer. We all think we’ve got what it takes to be the next big writer. Some of slave away for hours, days, months, years on a novel. While some will be happy to say, “I … Continue reading Putting Yourself Out There and Being Rejected
As I soon start draft 2 of The Sound of Madness, I am reaching to friends, family, and strangers on the ol’ interwebs to be beta readers. What’s a beta reader? A beta reader is this: A reader who will read your work that looks for typos, grammatical errors, continuity issues, critiquing/commenting on plot, plot issues, characterizations, what could use improving, etc. Basically, I need … Continue reading Beta Readers Wanted for The Sound of Madness