I’m late in
getting this up and my apologies. Mondays are usually my day off but this
morning wasn’t one of those Mondays. I had to work this morning and have two meetings
a little later. Sigh
Nothing really
exciting going on around beyond the back forty. We’ve been enjoying the unseasonably
warm weather last week and this week. Most of days have been sunny and in the upper
40’s and lower 50’s. As you can imagine, I’ve spent a lot of time outside doing
some fixing of this and that and just enjoying the sunshine after weeks of
little or no sunshine. Weather has been a seesaw with the beginning of this
month in the teens and below and now we’re on the up side of that. I have to
keep reminding myself that while it feels
like March, it's not, and we are still in the middle of what are our biggest snow months and what goes up—sunny and warmish—must come down. No doubt with with a big snow storm and more icy cold. Ah, well.
This month
is traditionally a new beginnings month. For those who write, it’s the month to
get back to work after the holidays and for some it’s getting serious about writing
or publishing that book of theirs. I’ve
shared several articles about gearing up for writing—pacing yourself so as not
to be stressed out, goal setting, how to create back cover copy and this coming
Wednesday, I have a small publisher weighing in on optimizing your chances of
getting a contract.
Next month I plan on having an editor visit and explain the
difference and importance of editing. This will be more than merely making sure
the words are correctly spelled or formatted. It will also cover the importance
of using a content editor and what they do. I’m also working on getting input
from an agent and cover artist. There is so much that goes into creating book
besides clean writing. It has to look professional and able to compete with
books in the same genre. This is especially so if you are indie published. As
Kat Sheridan mentioned in her two part series on writing back cover blurbs,
right or wrong, if the appearance of a book is sloppy or has errors, I tend to
skip over looking beyond that—especially with indie pubbed books. That’s a sale lost when it didn’t need to be.
I’ve also
had the privilege of reading two advance copies of stories from two of my
favorite male authors. I read both when they débuted and have seen their growth
as writers. Their stories are so much richer and joy to read—Matt (ML Buckman)
and Alex Cavenaugh. They write two
different genres but both are worthwhile reading if you like stories that put
you in the action and different worlds. I like the blend of romance, adventure,
and danger. Both have created engaging stories and well developed characters. I’ll
be sharing the reviews on their current stories soon.
Anything new
happening in your world?
