My guest is fiction author, Kristine Grayson, aka Nelscott, Rusch. I truly enjoyed her article, today, on the joys of being a storyteller. It's an encouraging read that acknowledges the downs but concentrates on the ups of a writing career.
When
people ask me about the trials and tribulations I’ve had in my writing career,
I often stare at them blankly. I think that, for me, the writing profession is
like childbirth. I forget the pain the moment it’s over.
That’s
because I love my work so very much. I go crazy when I’m not writing. If I go
without writing for more than a few days, my husband orders me to go write. Not
because he usually orders me around or he feels that I need to work, but
because I get so cranky when I’m not writing that he’d rather have me write
than not.
That
said, you need a lot of stamina and optimism to be a professional writer. I’ve
been one for more than thirty years now (and that’s a sentence I didn’t expect
to write so soon!) and I’ve been through some things that would make anyone’s
hair turn white. (Mine has, by the way.)
Rejection?
A million times. Rejection continues throughout the career. You don’t get used
to it. You don’t get even. You just learn that your writing isn’t to everyone’s
taste.
Orphaned?
That means have I lost an editor in the middle of a project? I stopped counting
after the first dozen. I’m not making that number up. I was orphaned five times
on one book series alone. The acquiring editor left the day I turned the first
manuscript in. I try not to take that personally.
Out of Print?
Not any more. I have sold my entire backlist under all of my pen names, from
Kristine Grayson to Kris Nelscott to Kristine Kathryn Rusch. But five years
ago, most of my books were out of print. That was how the business works.
Bad Reviews?
Oh, yeah. Some are laughably bad, like the one that favorably compared my book
to Steven Spielberg movies—as if that’s a bad thing. But others are just taste,
again. Sometimes someone reads my stuff and doesn’t like it. Oh, woe is me.
Then I turn around and carp about a novel that I just read that I didn’t like.
We all have taste issues. We all have things we like and things we hate. If I
didn’t know that, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.
Unfulfilled promises?
If I counted those, I’d get really depressed. Only two book editors in a career
filled with more than thirty book editors ever fulfilled all of their promises.
That’s it. The short story editors were all a dream to work with and remain so.
(Except for those who continue to reject my work, of course!)
So
what’s the upside? Well, honestly, it’s all upside. I get paid well to make up
stories. I stay home with my cats, set my own schedule, get up when I want to,
answer only to myself (and those cats), and live in a fantasy world. Sometimes
my made-up world is dark, as in the Kris Nelscott mystery novels. And sometimes
it’s just plain goofy, as in all of these Kristine Grayson Charming books.
Either
way, I have a blast.
See
why I forget about the pain? There’s just too much pleasure involved in this
entire profession for me to spend my entire life whining about how hard I have
it. No one dies if I fail to get to my desk. No one gets injured if I type a
bad sentence.
CHARMING BLUE
He lived through ages with the curse of attracting women...who end up dead...
One upon a time, he was the most handsome of princes, destined for great things. But now he's a lonely legend, hobbled by a dark history. With too many dead in his wake, Bluebeard escapes the only way he knows how—through the evil spell of alcohol. But it's a far different kind of spell that's been ruining his life for centuries.
How will she survive this killer Prince Charming?
Jodi Walters is a fixer, someone who can put magic back in order. She's the best in Hollywood at her game. But Blue has a problem she's never encountered before—and worse, she finds herself perilously attractived to him. Excerpt
BUY: AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, INDIEBOUND
