World War II in my Dad's Journals #TBSU

When my father died in 1982, we found the journals he kept through World War II. He wrote almost daily through the whole war, and included hundreds of sketches and photos. My sisters and I have always meant to publish his journals, but never seemed to get around to it. Now is the time!

My father, Louis Joseph Moran Jr., got a pass out of high school in order to enlist. He became a repairer of radios for fighter planes, and was stationed in England. Here he is with some of his fellow soldiers. Louie is on the left.

Dad included almost 200 sketches in his journal. I had the images photographed with a process camera to get the highest possible resolution. These are the unretouched originals. What do you think? Should I clean them up for publication, or do the lines, hole punches, and handwriting make them feel authentic?

One of the things I love best about my Dad's journal is that it presents such a different view of army life. A favorite pastime for him and his colleagues was collecting dictionaries! You can see the Webster's on the shelf in the upper left.

When they visited a town, they made a beeline straight to the... museums! Not the pubs, contrary to expectation. Remember that my Dad was an ordinary guy, not even really a high school graduate. In the boring times between fixing radios, he and his fellow soldiers took correspondence courses.

My Dad recounts some painful stories in the journal. Fighter pilots were a tough breed, sometimes bordering on crazy. Many didn't make it back to base. Commanders could be admired, indifferent, or a**holes. But in the middle of the boredom and the horror, my Dad also saw and recorded the beauty.

Louie recounts many funny stories in the pages of the journals. He remained in the army through the occupation, and he and his buddy asked to drive a command car, leading a convoy into Germany. Granted permission, they realized as they climbed in that each had thought the other knew how to drive!

Over the next few weeks, I hope to type up and assemble my Dad's journals for publication. I'll continue to share snippets, if people are interested. Were you or a family member in World War II? What stories have you heard? My Dad never talked about his army years, except to share the occasional funny anecdote. Only after he died did we learn about his journals. Do you have family treasures you are thinking about publishing? I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments.

I don't really have any related posts, but you might like these:

• Encouraging Words from Ronnie L. Smith of Writer's Relief #TBSU
• All My Fathers #TBSU
• Moms and Adult Daughters—A Conversation... #TBSU

Three great blogs, presented here in the grand tradition of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU

• Regina Duke
• Elyse Salpeter
• Rossana Condoleo 

Synopsis Day at the Novel Writers Workshop #TBSU

Back in a previous incarnation as Mary Carol Moran, I originated and taught the Novel Writers' Workshop for the Auburn University Outreach Program and at conferences and workshops around the United States. In five years, students produced around 15 published novels, not a bad record!

Yesterday, looking for a phantom synopsis, I came across a large file of lessons and worksheets from the NWW. Smacking the side of my head for not thinking of it before, I realized that it's time to share! Since I and a friend, Seumas Gallacher, have recently been working on synopses, that seems like a good place to begin.

Thirteen Suggestions for an Easy Breezy Synopsis Process

Writing a synopsis doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore, though I admit I used to say I’d rather write another whole novel! Here are thirteen ideas for an easier synopsis process. [Okay, I'm a Pollyanna, but really, it can be fun!]

Tip #1

Convince a friend to help you. Sit down in a quiet place with a tape recorder. Tell your friend the story of your book, trying to include everything important. Then let your friend ask questions, and you answer them, still on tape. Later go back and build your synopsis as a continuous narrative from the information (even the exact sentences) you used in talking to your friend. You may well capture the enthusiasm you are trying to convey.

Tip #2

Buy at least two different colors of 3x5 cards. Write the basic plot of your book onto one color of 3x5 cards, each scene (in one sentence) on its own card. If you’re selling the book as a romance, write the romance plot only. If it’s a mystery, write the mystery plot only. Ignore subplots, minor characters, nuances, etc. This is your basic synopsis. 

Now using the other color cards, go back and write down subplots, characters, whatever you think is interesting and adds to the book. Again, write one scene or thought per card. Put all the cards of both colors in order, and write the synopsis. This technique will help you focus on the main plot of your book. If the synopsis is too long, cut parts from the second set of cards.

Tip #3

Keep your plot outline up-to-date as you write. If you don’t outline, write a three or four sentence summary of the contents of a chapter before you go on to the next one. Use the revised outline as the basis for the first draft of the synopsis.

Tip #4

Write the synopsis itself as series of chapter summaries rather than a single narrative. This form isn’t quite as popular with agents and editors, but still works better for some novels.

Tip #5

Whatever method you use, consider putting a teaser at the top of your synopsis. This could be a possible book jacket advertising blurb. Or it could be a bit of background on the main character(s). Another opener might be a 50 word summary of the whole plot. If you have a great jacket quote from a known writer, put it here. Use one of these ideas, not all four!

Tip #6

A rule of thumb is to write about 1 page of synopsis for every 25 pages of manuscript. However, many agents and editors specify a maximum length. You may need a five page synopsis for one agent, a ten page for another, and a twenty page for someone else. The 3x5 cards can help you expand and contract as needed.

Tip #7

Here’s a hint I learned from one of my students: Don’t be afraid to use generous portions verbatim from the opening of your novel. The student ‘wastes’ a whole page of the synopsis on the first few pages of the novel (slightly abbreviated), then summarizes the rest in the remaining four pages. The first page pulls the reader into the story better than any other synopsis I’ve read.

Tip #8

As with the query letter, tell the story in simple language. If you’re sending a synopsis, you are also sending sample chapters. Nobody asks for one without the other. The sample chapters will convince the editor that you write beautifully. The point of the synopsis is to demonstrate that you plot beautifully, that the structure of the book works from beginning to end.

Tip #9

Always tell the ending of your novel. This is not the time to be coy. One of the main reasons for requesting a synopsis is to make sure the climax of the book will be as satisfying as the first few chapters. Lots of people can write fifty good pages. Convince the editor that you’ve written an excellent, complete book. Remember that your reader right now is a business person, not a literary critic.

Tip #10

Proofread! Perfection is everything. One typo can sink a sale. This is one situation where perfection IS required!

Tip #11

A one-page synopsis can be single spaced. Don’t send a one-page synopsis unless specifically requested. One great page is the hardest to write. On a longer synopsis, you can single space the teaser, but always double space the synopsis itself.

Tip #12

Don’t leave the synopsis to the last minute. Once you’ve finished the book, draft the synopsis right away, long before you begin to think about sending the manuscript out to agents and editors. Allow yourself lots of time to rework and revise; the synopsis can be the hardest few pages of the book to write, and it can also be the most important for marketing to royalty publishers.

Tip #13

Even if you are self-publishing, consider putting in the effort to craft a strong synopsis. It may help you to identify and correct a plot weakness or inconsistency. And you never know when a movie producer is going to call! Better to have that killer synopsis all polished up!

Call for Suggestions

So there you have it. Not all tips will work for all writers. Pick and choose what works for you. The only one that's essential is Tip #10. Please, proofread your synopsis over and over and over...

If there's a topic you'd like to see in a post, leave me a request in the comments. I'll be happy to share the information if I have it, or to research and write it up if it's a subject I didn't cover in the live workshops.

Writers, please weigh in with your own synopsis suggestions. Do you find writing a synopsis easy or not so easy? How do you shift hats from creative genius to business-savvy marketer? As always, I'm eager to hear your thoughts, and look forward to a great conversation!

Check out these related posts:

• Publish or Perish vs the Law of Attraction
• Wait! Change! It's the Law of Attraction!

Some great blogs, presented here in the grand tradition of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU

• Seumas Gallacher (link to his post on writing a synopsis!)
• Knight Agency (not a blog but a link to an agent's submission guidelines—worth a look to see what top agencies are looking for)
• David Lender's Blog (a lovely, literate blog that's always a pleasure to read)

Jimmy Buko on EBook Marketing 101 #TBSU

Hello Readers,

This is Jimmy Buko. You may know me as the half-billionaire from Twelve Nights. Well, a little more than a half-billion now, but who's counting. If you're trying to picture me, think of a young Harvey Keitel. Here's a candid shot that's floating around the Internet of Harv that looks a lot like me. If you know who took it, let me know and I'll give them credit.

On to the point of this post, marketing Ebooks. Carole is a good friend, and she and I were having a coffee a couple of days ago and she asked me for help. The way she described it was that she feels like she's sitting in a boat in the middle of the lake (nice lake, beautiful view, BTW) and has just now figured out that maybe she could use a paddle. I'm the paddle.

Brand Name

First step to marketing widgets, er books, is the brand name. People buy Kellogg's cereal automatically because they trust the name Kellogg. Rightly or wrongly, but that's not the point. Your brand identity as an author is your NAME.

To back up that brand name, you must have the second element of success, quality.

Quality

The first component of brand quality is the books themselves. All I'll say here, not being a writer myself, is... EDIT! Don't rush to print just to be in print. Sticking with Kellogg's as an example, they started with a quality product, Corn Flakes, about 100 years ago. Still on every supermarket shelf today. Make sure your first book is top notch. Hire an editor if you need to. Since Carole is an editor, with twenty or so proteges' books in print, I'll let her add a few sentences here.

My advice to first time novelists is the same as Stephen King's: CUT! 

and Agatha Christie's: MURDER YOUR DARLINGS! (If you looove it, 

delete it!) Try to eliminate one third of the words in your manuscript. 

Much weak writing is simply overwritten, and would be improved

by cutting unessential words!

This blog post by Wm. Luke Everest has a succinct 
summary of Stephen King's advice.

The second component of quality is in every other scrap of writing that goes out with your name behind it! Yes, that includes Tweets (keep it real and personal), Facebook postings, and most especially blog posts.

Google Love

So, now you have your brand and your product. The next step is to get it out there. Carole gets points here. (Don't worry, the demerit points are coming...) Type Carole Remy in Google Search and you get five pages of listings. Go ahead and try it. Impressive, eh?

How do you get love from search engines? You can find tons of articles out there about SEO, Search Engine Optimization. Read them all if you want, but I'll tell you the key in a single word, and it's the same key word. Quality. Write interesting, durable blog posts, not just advertising and what you ate for breakfast. Write interesting, durable guest posts on other blogs. Going on a book blog tour can get you started on the guest posting circuit. What's durable? That's an article that the reader opens up five months after it was originally written, because it says something that she's now interested in reading.

Now It's Time to Sell Books!

I told you there were demerit points coming, right? Carole has the platform down solid. If you want to pursue the first metaphor, she's built herself a sturdy little boat! But in terms of actual book sales, she's still one oar shy of a pair. Here's the next step.

Understand the Market

Amazon Kindle is a very specific market. It obeys different rules from a grocery store, and different rules from a brick and mortar bookstore. Here are the basics for Kindle:  

• a great cover that fits the type of book, but perhaps isn't totally stereotypical (think cereal box), 
• a catchy blurb that pulls readers into the story,
• correct placement (don't put your cereal in the canned veggies aisle).

Keep Your Book Visible

Amazon determines what books show up where in the listings. You want your book to at least be visible on the first page when someone types your title! Amazon uses a complicated formula that nobody understands (probably not even Amazon), but there are three aspects you can manipulate: likes, sales and reviews.

• Ask everyone you can think of to LIKE your book! It costs them nothing, and it helps your rankng.
• When sales dip, GIFT the book yourself. Make a list of people you could give your book to, people who would actually enjoy receiving it!, and GIFT through Amazon a few copies a week. Up front, it costs you a few dollars per book, but you get back 70%, right? So a $2.99 gift book only really costs you $1. Your friends think you're generous, you feel generous (Law of Attraction, anyone?), and it actually costs almost nothing.
• If you want REVIEWS, you want to think up some way to reward reviewers. Free books is the traditional route. It works, so give away all the advance reader copies you can. But there are other forms of rewards. Reviewers want publicity. That's why they review in the first place. So give them all the publicity you can. Tweet and FB your little heart out, not just for your own but for friends' reviews. Create and advertise a Pinterest board with excerpts and links to every good review. Use your imagination, and find ways to entice reviewers to wait in line review your books!

Free Days

Another marketing tool that's if not unique, then is certainly identified with Kindle, is free book days. Carole hasn't tried this yet, but I'm urging her to.

Okay, Jimmy! Stop twisting! 

Twelve Nights is going on a free promotion soon! Promise!

Giveaways are an age-old marketing tactic. The basic marketing principle is to elevate the perceived value of your product ahead of the giveaway. I read a couple of articles about Kindle free days, so I could advise Carole how to proceed. You can read the same articles and learn how to actually set up the days. I'll just summarize a few key marketing points.

• Raise the price a day or two before the free days. Make people think they're getting an even bigger bargain. Leave the price higher for a few days after the sale, to reap the maximum benefit from sales.
• The day before you raise the price, GIFT a bunch of copies, say ten or twenty. You want to go into the freebie days with as high an Amazon ranking as possible. Don't wait until after you raise the price, or you've just cost yourself some extra cash!
• Write a post on your blog a day or two before the free days. Be creative. Maybe a couple of your characters are super excited about the sale. Maybe they have a funny conversation about buying shoes on sale at DSW. (Stop giving away all my ideas, Jimmy! Don't you just love DSW, ladies!)
• Scramble to get as many reviews as possible posted. Wait until your novel has at least six solid reviews before you do a giveaway. More is better.
• Contact the media outlets, now known as Twitter, Facebook, etc, and let them know about your upcoming freebie days. Click the articles link for lists of who to contact.

During the Freebie Days

Now your book is free on Amazon Kindle. Relax and watch the downloads flow in? Not quite.

• Without being obnoxious or a spammer, let people know your book is now free for a limited time.
• All the great contacts you've nurtured on Twitter and Facebook? Count on them to help you spread the word!
• Ask your friends who haven't already bought the book to download a copy, even if they received a free non-Amazon copy earlier directly from you. Ask your friends who have already bought the book to download copies and give them as gifts. 
• Write a post on your blog on the first freebie day. Again, something fun. Not a blatant ad. Something that a reader will enjoy reading even after the free days are over.

Okay, NOW you can relax and watch the downloads mount!

Whew! Enough for Now!

Thank you so much, Jimmy! My brain is on overload.

You're welcome, Carole. I'll come back after the first set of Kindle Free days for Twelve Nights and we can do a postmortem. In the meantime, readers, if you have any questions or comments, I'll stick around for awhile. What marketing strategies have you tried? How have they worked out? I'd say Carole needs all the help she can get, but then she's punch me.

Darn right, Jimmy!

Ouch!

Bye for now!

Check out these related posts:

• Can I Use the Law of Attraction to Boost Book Sales?
• Publish or Perish vs the Law of Attraction

Some great blogs, courtesy of The Blog Scratchers' Union! #TBSU

• Seumas Gallacher (the original scratcher...)
• Vibe Shifting (all things Law of Attraction, plus gluten free baking!)
• Life, For Instance (philosophy on the porch)

Blogging, the Law of Attraction, a Union, and Bats! What??? #TBSU #BAT

Last night I finished Seumas Gallacher's The Blogger's Guide to Absolutely Nothing. This isn't exactly a book review, though I do urge you to buy the book and enjoy a few hours of fun with an upbeat message. The Blogger's Guide is a humorously presented appeal to be our better selves, and all in a Scottish accent that I love and won't even try to duplicate.

Click to buy the book! Now!

Whether you go to Amazon and buy the book or not, do yourself a favor and subscribe to Seumas's entertaining blog. It's joined my very short list of daily reads.

click to visit Seumas Gallacher's blog

What I want to write about though today, is something a little different. Seumas' philosophy of life and blogging got me thinking. I had been moving in the same direction, but reading his words pulled it all together for me. And it all ties in with the Law of Attraction, wouldn't you know.

The Money Bugbear

A few days ago, Nathalie Thompson at Vibe Shifting generously published a guest post I wrote. You can read all about my slightly twisted relationship with money, and how I recently got clarity on a little piece of the bigger issue. Letting go of the need to be the rich American who funds the Mexican dog rescue is a huge step for me. Huge! My ears are popping all the time, which is my own little personal sign from the Universe that energy is shifting. Pop, pop. There it goes.

Now, I am not, have never been, and probably will never be a rich American. I live in Mexico because I love it, with the giant added benefit that I live nicely on a relatively small pension. The urge to fund a rescue shelter had led me to release my novels on the Kindle market in the first place, to hit the jackpot of sales for a good cause.

The first day I 'met' Seumas, and I can't even remember who introduced us, I was in the middle of a partial meltdown. If I wasn't promoting my books because I needed lots of money for the dogs, why was I putting in twelve hour days tweeting, blogging, and Facebooking, not to mention trying to figure out Goodreads and now Google+? Arggg!

Here's the Law of Attraction part.

When I was ready to realize that the pressure to fund dog rescue was a purely self-imposed strain, the Universe put the lovely Nathalie in my path, to invite me to write a guest post, which gave me the opportunity to wrestle through to a happier emotion.

That's how the LoA works. Even when you're not ready, the opportunities are all there. You just can't see them. When you finally drop the blinders, the resolution is so clear and simple it makes you weep, or jump around doing a happy dance!

And here comes the Law of Attraction again. Just when I'm struggling with the next layer of the onion, I meet someone who can articulate a clear vision of where I'm going and why I'm going there. Thank you, Universe! Thank you, Seumas! I didn't even wallow for very long—just a day or two. When you open yourself to change, it comes roaring through.

The Evolution of a Blogger/Human Being

By now I hope you're really curious about what this message is that I've learned, or reaffirmed, from reading The Blogger's Guide. It's simple really, and it's more like a booster shot for things I was already doing. We can blog from a spirit of generosity, nothing more, pure generosity. Seumas does, and I can too. Just share. Joy, bounty, encouragement, kind words. Just share it all.

Tweet this, okay? I have no idea how to set it up as a link. Maybe you can figure it out.

Just share. Joy, bounty, encouragement, kind words. 

Just share it all.

What Seumas communicates effortlessly, and what he reminded me of in The Blogger's Guide, is the sheer joy of touching lives and being touched. He writes about how he stumbled into the fun of blogging after starting his blog as a purely promotional tool. Me too! I realized about a month ago that what I really enjoy about blogging is not the promoting, but the writing about all the amazing things in my life. If you happen to see a book cover and want to buy a book, Woohoo! But it's kind of secondary to the other fun.

Right now, last night, today, I needed that reminder and I was ready to listen. And there were Seumas and The Blogger's Guide, ready to nudge me in the right direction!

#TBSU

Seumas has a group called #TBSU, the (arrg, I can never remember what the letters stand for!), okay, The Blog Scratcher's Union. It's a hashtag for bloggers who support each other's writing: You scratch my back, I scratch yours. As of today, please consider me a member.

If you are a blogger and reading this, consider putting #TBSU on your posts and Tweets. It's like a secret (but it's not a secret) handshake to other bloggers. You help me. I'll help you. Go to Seumas blog for a complete explanation of how it all works, or read the book! (Woohoo! A plug!)

My minor addition takes the idea a baby step further.

#BAT (We could have a bat signal, or something!)

When I meet a blogger that I like, I want to read their posts. Not just the new ones, but all of them or at least most. Sifting through a whole blog full of archives is way too much. So what I propose is that the #TBSU adopt the additional hashtag of #BAT to identify a Blog Archive Tweet! There are some bloggers out there who are brilliant at tweeting me into reading their archives, and I really appreciate it! Check out

@CassandraPage01

@Kevin_Hanrahan2

@MindfulHealth

@VibeShifting

to name just a very few master archive tweeters. What makes this tactic work is that every single one of the archives they tweet is well worth reading! I search the Twitterverse for posts from them to read and RT.

Tweet Your Best Archives with the Hashtag #BAT

How about if we make it a little easier, folks? Tweet your best archives, the ones that don't lose their timeliness, with the hashtag #BAT, Blog Archive Tweet. You'll make my Twitter searching easier, and maybe the idea will catch on through the #TBSU world! We can tweet and share and spread the joy not only across space but across time! 

I don't want to imply that I have any kind of endorsement from Seumas for #BAT. He has never heard of it before reading this post. And I hope I'm not shamelessly hanging my hat onto an already hugely successful hashtag. It just seems to me that maybe we could all have a little more fun, and make our blogs just a little more alive.

So what do you think? Are you already using #TBSU? If not, why not start? When you discover a wonderful blog, do you like to read archived posts, like me? Would you look for the hashtag #BAT? Will you start using it? As always, I'm eager to read your comments! How about a lively discussion of the joys of blogging? Thank you again for starting the conversation, Seumas. And y'all—buy his book!

Oh yeah, oh yeah. And buy my books too, okay? The links are on the right side of the page. Whew! Marketing done. Check.

Check out these related posts:

• Publish or Perish vs the Law of Attraction

• Can I Use the Law of Attraction to Boost Book Sales?

• Banish the Anxiety — Focus on the Fun!

Encouraging Words from Aubrianna Hunter

This post is the first in a series of Encouraging Words! Whether you're an aspiring author or someone who wants a little boost, I hope these words will inspire you. The series title comes from the lyrics of an old song, "Home on the Range."

Where never is heard

a discouraging word,

and the skies are not cloudy all day!

Our first guest blogger is the lovely Aubrianna Hunter, author of erotic romances including Hidden Depths and Beyond the Mask. She'll give you the scoop on the emotional side of traditional publishing. Take it away, Aubrianna!

Encouraging words from a published author... Hmmmm. That is a really tricky question, especially considering I'm not entirely sure I've done anything the 'right' way. I wrote two books, queried forty different publishers and agents, and they were both rejected by everyone. That part is pretty traditional.

However, my third book (the first one published), wasn't even completed when I sent out a query. Fully expecting another refusal I sent it to one publishing house on a whim. I didn't even submit the query with the requested formatting. I opened with a quip... "Long time friends, one time lovers..."

It was accepted twenty-four hours later, which meant I had to finish writing the book! Oh. My. God. I was some weird combination of excited and absolutely terrified. Now, I not only had to finish a book in a matter of days, I had to let the world read it! Eeeekk.

So, my Encouraging Words are...

First and foremost, keep trying. If at first you don't succeed, write, write again. You will hear "No;" you will have haters. It's part of the process and the best way to look at it is not to take it personally. Just keep at it. Submit to as many people as possible, as often as possible. There will be a lot more no's than yes's. Contrary to how I got published, I would say make sure you have a completed manuscript and that it is as polished as you can make it before you try and submit. That last minute panicked rush was absolutely no fun.

Find and stick with your style

Be true to your own style. The one thing that I have heard repeatedly, from both fans and haters, is that I don't sound like anyone else. Which is probably quite true. Some love my writing style, and others don't. However, I refuse to change my approach simply to please a critic. And trust me when I say it has been suggested in more ways than one. Find your style, write what you want to read, and stay true to yourself. Your writing will be more natural and infinitely better if it is not forced.

Marketing! Aaahhh, marketing

Then there is marketing! Aaahhh, marketing. Sadly, it doesn't matter how amazingly good your book may be if you cannot convince people to read it. Marketing is hard, it is slow, and it is time consuming. The reality is that even the most successful authors, the most amazing series, did not hit it big right out of the gate. Twilight was first published four years before it became a household name. There are a million marketing strategies and techniques, and they have all seen some success. The best advice I can give is to look for a publisher that handles marketing for you. Then... do what they tell you! It is a lot of work, but ultimately it is worth it. Just give it time!

Best of luck! I look forward to reading your work.

Aubrianna Hunter

Aubrianna and I will be happy to field your questions and comments! Thanks for joining us. We look forward to a great discussion.

Check out these related posts:

• Encouraging Words from Kevin Hanrahan
• Encouraging Words from Nathalie Thompson

Suzanne Johnson and Susannah Sandlin - My Amazing Friend!

The last two weeks have flashed past. Sorry I haven't posted. I took my own advice from the first post, and have been pondering what to write about on this blog. That led to the list at your left - What Makes Me Dance!

So honoring the list, I'll write first about an amazing writer friend, and invite you to get to know her better.

Suzanne Johnson aka Susannah Sandlin

I've known Suzanne/Susannah for years. We were in a writers group together before she became famous, and it was clear from the start that she has 'IT.' She writes urban fantasy as Suzanne, and paranormal romance, quite a bit steamier!, as Susannah.

We recently reconnected, and she's been mentoring me as I step into the world of e-book publishing, kind of like the master vampire and the newby! Here are a few places you can get to know her better.

Suzanne's FB page
Susannah's FB page
Suzanne`s web page/
Susannah's web page
Suzanne's Amazon page
Susannah's Amazon page



Suzanne Johnson's books are Royal-Street and River-Road, both set in post-Katrina new Orleans. You feel the grit and despair as a backdrop to the high stakes paranormal games!

Susannah Sandlin's books are Omega-The-Penton-Vampire-Legacy, Absolution-The-Penton-Vampire-Legacy, and Redemption-The-Penton-Vampire-Legacy. They're set in rural Alabama, which is extra fun for me since I lived there for awhile.

Suzanne has agreed to write a guest post here soon. If you have questions for her, let me (and her) know in the comments. I hope my affection for this lovely lady has come through in this post. The huge bonus is that she's also an incredible writer, and I highly recommend every one of her books as a delightful, engrossing experience.

Hugs to you all! I look forward to conversing in the comments,

Carole

Getting Started

Back as a kid and young adult, I love writing but decided that I wanted to live first, and then have something to say. Forty sounded like about the right age to start. Who knows if it was serendipity or intention, but at around forty, I did get the unstoppable urge to write. I started with poems, then decided after a few months to try to write a novel.

The writers' group I was in at the time advised me to set a schedule, to write every day or at least once a week at a set time. I tried. I really tried. I wrote about a chapter a week, and the book (never published) felt boring even to me. Then three things happened that catapulted me into a novel writing future.

Three Serendipities

I’d always been a huge fan of Georgette Heyer, legendary Regency romance novelist. I found a copy of her biography in a used bookstore. Turns out she didn’t write on a schedule at all. Whew! At the moment of reading her bio, I became an open, acknowledged, and ultimately successful binge writer.

Second was that I read Anne Rice's erotic trilogy written under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure. The sex was a little extreme for me, but the idea that a respected, even idolized, writer would publicly write erotica energized an unexpected impulse for me. I'd always liked sex a lot, and now it felt like I could write about it. Woohoo!

The third serendipitous event was the release of the movie Pretty Woman. I loved that movie! That it was a modern retelling of an ancient fairy tale felt like light bulbs going off in my head.

Writing the First Book

About a week before Spring Break (I was an English teacher at the time), I had a dream one night of a modern fairy tale told as a novel. The dream was complete down to the chapter breaks. I dream-realized that I had two choice: go back to sleep, or wake myself up completely and write down the whole plot. I woke up and wrote brief summaries of about 30 chapters of what became my first published novel, Beauty of the Beast. If you know a little about the Law of Attraction, you are probably saying to yourself, inspired action! Yes. 

That Spring Break, I told my daughters that I was going to try to write a novel, and please not to interrupt me unless the house was burning down. They were old enough and comfortable enough with my eccentricities that they just went about their lives, and brought me in a peeled banana from time to time. Seven non-stop days later, the first draft of Beauty was complete. From there it went through half a dozen edits, then got shipped out to ten potential agents. Long story short, one year almost to the day after finishing the first draft, Beauty of the Beast was in every Barnes and Noble in the United States.

What’s the takeaway?

Okay, true confession, in another life, I’m a blogger for the Law of Attraction. Here’s how the LoA worked for me way back before it was ‘invented.’.

Takeaway 1: Intentions do manifest. At exactly the age I naively thought I’d be ready to write, guess what, I was ready to write.

Takeaway 2: Find your own version of the flow, and everything will work. Writing by somebody else’s rules didn’t work. Writing what and when and how I wanted, produced a happily published book with what felt like little effort.

So for beginning and long-time writers alike, I’d remind you of two things: believe in your intentions, and honor your personal work style.

What is your personal process? I’d love to hear your story of beginning to write. What advice do you have for aspiring or beginning or publishing authors? Please share!