#IWSG Are you Afraid?

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Welcome back, my favorite IWSG palz! I am a bit nervous about posting anything about this because I'm not sure if it's in bad taste, but here it goes...

Once upon a time, before Darkspell released and while I was still working on it, I was suddenly hit with a severe case of writers block. So I decided to focus on others and reached out and started helping more than usual during my downtime. I reviewed, beta read, alpha read, critiqued, blogged, guest posted, helped spotlight others, etc. Finally, after a few months, my Muse awoke from his hibernation and I finally finished off my book. Yay!

I then submitted my book and my publisher advised me to find myself some endorsers. So I backtracked and asked those whom I helped and many of them were willing! There was one author in particular who felt it necessary to lecture me. He said that I don't just ask people to endorse my book, but there needs to be a history between us of helping out. I thought, "That's what I'd been doing these past few months, was helping out others like crazy." Needless to say, he made me feel bad.

I noticed over the years people are hesitant at endorsing books (I understand you need to feel comfortable endorsing any book and that's something any author should allow), and since there is never a workshop at Writers Conferences on how to gain an endorser, I am somewhat at a loss on how to actually obtain them.

update:
Author Deirdra Eden feels the same. She says "IT is SOOOO hard to get endorsements. Authors for the most part are really hard on each other and act like they are competition. The thing is, books are a consumable. Think about that. I talked to a kid who read my book in half a day and I was like ...'Okay it took me 16 years to write.' If authors got this, they would rally around each other as allies and not enemies. I sent out like 100 requests to authors and only 5 came back and said yes and some wanted strings attached. pathetic. 

So I decided I was going to get moms and dads and kids and teachers to endorse my book. I found those endorsements to be WAY more powerful than endorsements from famous authors."

What is your process in requesting endorsements? Are you afraid to endorse another author? Do you feel threatened?

Aw, Do I *Have* to KILL my Darlings?

I've read many articles on killing your darlings. If you can successfully do this, then editing is a breeze. But not all darlings must be eradicated! Sometimes they must stay behind to make your story solid--even if it's your editor's wish to, uh, remove them.

I've written an article for the Au Courant Press Journal on my personal experience with two different editors with two different books from the same publisher. What. An. Adventure!

I would love if you would drop by and see just what it was like for me, click >here< to read article.

By the way, I illustrated the silly comic--what do you think?

Digging into *this* Writer's Brain

I’m not going to talk to you today about quick secrets of success, or how to write the perfect book. I’m going to share with how believing in myself changed my life as a writer.

It all started in 4^th grade with poetry assignments. I was terrified to come up with words that rhymed, much less read them aloud in class! I honestly thought that would be the end of writing assignments. In 6^th, we were given a bound book with blank pages to fill up with a short story. The mountains suddenly stretched tall into the vast skies in my little brain, and the world of novel-writing was born.

I fell in love with fantasy in high school as most young kids do, though reading was something I did not like. The reason for that was my mind would wonder as I read; I failed most required reading tests. At 17, I started my first book, a high fantasy novel about an elf who had lost her sense of self through the evil sorcerer who destroyed an entire nation. I completed that 700 paged novel by hand 8 years later.

An Author's Failure ... or is it?

I wish I had excellent words of wisdom oozing from my brain to share with you regarding my writing journey. Though my love is found in writing fiction, I often feel inadequate when it comes to my experiences with my career though I have experienced quite a bit!

I started out with a small publisher who simply extended her service under CreateSpace, though she is an excellent cover artist and formatter. I crashed and burned when I tried to get my books to book stores and though CreatSpace's distributors could get your books directly into brick and mortar stores, I learned the hard way that my books were NOT set up that way.

I had to bring my own box in and sell it differently than other authors at book signings. I have been taken advantage by these stores (not all, most have integrity). What's sad, is that this is a race of one as an author.

I understand that we are networked and support one another, but realistically, we are so busy surviving life with a regular job that writing is a side thing though it does NOT feel that way. How can we make more time for flailing writers who need our expertise? Oh, yes, there are many writers out there who are willing to mentor and share secrets, but those are very rare to find!

Needless to say, I lost all confidence in my career when my old publisher decided to restructure her company and everyone became Indie: we would utilize one another's expertise and help get our individual books published that way.

Though Darkspell was my first published, it was not my first written. I have been writing for over twenty years and decided to push that one the hardest. I became lost and eventually orphaned from my publisher, but I kept writing and writing.

Though I have stumbled much thereafter, I have not given up on my love of writing and have come across second chances that feel like a slow take-off, but I have been led where I am at for a divine purpose that only the future will tell.

As Emily Mah had mentioned, Cinderella stories are far and few and success is dependent upon the view of the beholder. For some, success is simply getting that book published. After all, that is a significant goal accomplished!


What valuable lessons have you learned as a writer?  (Every step is important, even if you're not published!)

#IWSG The Glory of Being a Writer!

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They say that being a writer is a lonely occupation. I agree. We hole ourselves in our writing cave and create vast worlds filled with colorful characters. We research and study hours and hours of material. 

There are many times I feel forlorn as I meet with others who share the same obsession through a 12 inch screen and type away my conversations. Then I move on to my writing cave and I am alone again.

But there are those moments when we shake off those quill feathers of ours and dare to venture into the sunshine, to venture into the world where other writers convene and share our love of our common craft!

Of course there are other aspects of the writer's life like family, a 9 to 5 job, illnesses, rain, walks around the neighborhood! Let me liken a writer's life to Harry Potter: my writing world is witches and wizards, with Voldemort and Buckbeak--my creativity has no limit while my real life is with Muggles (nonwriters) who scurry about their lives never knowing any better of the thoughts that churn in my head that create worlds of every kind. Muahahahah! >:D

How I love being a writer! How I love other writers! No matter where I am, I love being surrounded by others who are as crazy as I am! We are a magical folk.

What are your thoughts on being a writer?