Category Archives: All Things Writing

Road Trip, Day Six

Leave a reply

Sorry about the lack of updates–weekends aren’t the best time for me to make any headway, so I’m spending some time playing catch-up now.

Day 6 finds me closing in on the formatting of Widow Woman, Chapter 17 . I would’ve been farther along, but upon closer inspection of the very earliest chapters I wrote, I discovered that I had been operating with what Smashwords’ style guide calls a “common bad habit of all authors.” Er…I used my space bar in the early chapters to indent, rather than setting up a paragraph style. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you all groaning, but Smashwords says it’s common, so cut me some slack. I have learned my lesson (after seeing dots floating in front of my eyes all weekend, it was inevitable.) I feel like a writers’ Bart Simpson: “I will not use my space bar to indent. I will not use my space bar to indent. I will not use my space bar to indent.”

At any rate, that set me back a bit of time to go back and address all of that. But the important thing is that it’s all cleaned up now and I’m back to chugging along at a good pace. If I keep this up, I might just be finished within the week. Finished. Was there ever a more satisfying word?

Also received some preliminary cover art from my designer–chose my favorite of 3 renditions, asked for a slight hue adjustment, and am so excited at how it has turned out. I haven’t signed off on it yet, however. I’m pretty cautious when it comes to weighty decisions, and I think the cover art falls precisely into that category, so while I’m relatively certain it’s a go, I’m not ready to push the button just yet. Mostly, I think it’s just that I want to look at the cover design some more, to roll it around in my mind, ponder it…savor it.

Keeping the countdown rolling.

Road Trip, Day Two

Leave a reply

Short update today: I only made it through three chapters. I would have made it through more, but the chaos in my office was starting to distract me, so I sacrificed some time to clean it up. I hadn’t even unpacked the single box I carted home from work when I left–I’d just pulled out the things I needed and scattered the rest all over the place. Much happier and more focused now that everything’s squared away.

I am starting to enjoy the formatting process in a weird, twisted sort of way. It’s satisfyingly orderly and repetitive and appeals to the part of my soul that should be working on an assembly line (and may yet, if you don’t like the book when it comes out).

On a brief, and very sad note, I learned today that The Writer magazine will be going on hiatus this fall as it searches for a buyer. I hope they find one–the loss of that venerable old publication would be deeply felt by writers all over the world (including this one).

Somebody, please, buy it!

More updates to follow…

Road Trip, Day One-and-a-Half

Leave a reply

The road in question here is, of course, the road to publication of Widow Woman. I’m aiming for within 30 days. The “1/2” is because technically, today is already Day 2, but I didn’t get much done yesterday, so I’m not counting it. It’s my party, I’ll lie–er, fudge–if I want to.

So where am I? Got the title page, copyright page, dedication, acknowledgements, and TOC completed and formatted and slogged through the first 8 chapters. Not as far as I’d hoped to get, but at least it’s forward progress.Ugh. Necessary evils suck.

Also made first contact with the designer I’d like to create my cover for me–shared my ideas with him and am greatly encouraged by his feedback. I toyed (briefly) with the idea of designing the cover myself, but a) completely lack any ability to translate visually what I see in my mind–duh, writer; and b) everything I’ve read stresses the importance, particularly for e-books, of an eye-catching and professional-looking cover.

I look at it this way: If I put an extra space or two somewhere in the formatting, you’ll bitch about it, maybe ridicule me to a few of your more supercilious friends (come on, fellow editors, we’ve all done it) but I think (hope), if you’re finding the story compelling enough, you’ll get over my egregious mistakes and keep reading. But–if you’re not grabbed by the cover, you’ll never even pick it up (or click on it)–it’s just too important a factor to trust it to my own mischief-prone hands.

That’s where I am! More updates to come–keep those comments coming!

P.S. Tomorrow, I’m dropping the “1/2”–it’s still my party and I can.

Let The Countdown Begin…Tomorrow

1 Reply

Per advice from Kristen Brown’s forthcoming book, The Happy Hour Effect, I am going public with my self-imposed deadline to publish (digital-only) Widow Woman. To paraphrase her theory, a public deadline makes you accountable. We’ll see. All I know is I feel I’m finally ready.

If you watched my interview, you know I’m a little nervous about the technology aspect of self-publishing, but I’ve come this far, I can’t stop now. So–I’ve got a few guidebooks on hand and I’ve begun working on the formatting. (Just between you and me: I hate this part. It is the antithesis of creativity. But it’s standing between me and finishing this book off so I can move on to the next two waiting in the wings.)

Beginning tomorrow, I’m hoping to give you short, regular updates throughout the next month so you can follow my progress–any encouraging comments or helpful tips would be greatly appreciated, since (as my loyal readers know), I’m working with a high learning curve.

Here we go!

Course Correction

Leave a reply

For those of you who don’t already know, this post contains some surprising news: I resigned from my job. Yes, my new job, the one I started just a few short months ago.

It should have been obvious from my last post that the work-life balance was something with which I was struggling. It wasn’t the job–I truly did love it–but rather a combination of things, a laundry list of difficulties I should have seen coming but didn’t. Or, to be rather more honest about it, I saw them coming, but thought I could manage them. Long commute, family demands, less flexibility than I needed–a perfect storm of unsustainability for me. So after long thought, no small amount of prayer, wise counsel from my husband and others, I made the difficult decision to resign. I’m fortunate in that the split has been more amicable than I could have dreamed, though the parting last week was, nonetheless, bittersweet. I will miss the people and the work more than I would have expected.

But as one of my (now former) colleagues said on my last day, “It’s a wise woman who knows her own path.” Don’t know how true it is, but I’m hoping that I’m on the right one now.

Lots happening this week: my interview for the cable program  “It’s A Woman’s World” is airing today (MCN6, for those of you in theTwin Cities’ 7-county metro area, at 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.; it’ll also run on July 23, same times; for St. Paul viewers, cable channel 15 on Thursday, July 19 and 26 at 6:30 p.m.); after it airs, it’ll be posted to YouTube and my website. So that’s exciting and scary simultaneously.

Speaking of my website, I just completed a speed-of-light overhaul, which was sorely needed. I used a do-it-yourself template service, since speed and a zero-coding requirement were critical factors. It’s not fancy, doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but it’s eminently more readable and far less user-unfriendly (all right, I’ll call a spade a spade: user-hostile):  https://justscribbling.com/.

I’m also being invited to work on a number of projects that have popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, during the last few days, opportunities that are not only enormously flattering but also reassuring that the events of the last few months were not mistakes, only course corrections.

At any rate, you should be hearing from me a little more often now–hopefully you think that’s a good thing, because I know I do. Stay tuned!