Is It Time to Finally Quit this Crazy Business?

Hello, friends and Fire Enthusiasts. We’re going to get real today – not that I lie, cheat or steal here. I just mean that I thought I would spend this time talking about my reality, and perhaps yours, too.

I’ve sold a few books, but that’s really all. Not too many. The 30 total reviews or so I have received for my three novels have been pretty good. I certainly can’t be anything but pleased with those. Even the one or two bad reviews are helpful in the grant scheme of things. I read those and then quickly moved on, refusing to dwell on the negative.

So why am I telling you all of this? Well, it’s because I wonder who else is struggling in the same waters as me?

For the most part I try and put on a positive display. I don’t lie and make up glorious numbers or pretend to be a best seller when I am clearly not. I do think it’s important to appear to be an “I’ve got it all together” -looking author. I think readers need to know that you’re not quitting tomorrow. On the other hand, I want to be a help to others. If I step out and admit that things are moving at a snail’s pace, perhaps it helps someone else who is on the verge of giving up.

I really think it is more important for me to get someone to back away from the proverbial ledge than it is to continue this front.

Earlier I mentioned something about water. You see, I know I’m not a bad writer. Too many have said wonderful things about my work for that to be true. The trouble is – and I really believe this – there is a sea of books out there. Ultimately, it may prove to be too much competition for many of us. I don’t think it’s only me. Are we telling our stories because we want to get rich? Or are we doing it because we simply have stories to tell and it would be a shame not to?

For my third book, I moved away from horror and penned a paranormal with a strong dose of romance. I was (and am) very excited about it. I once again paid for the professional edit job, and lucked out by getting a wonderful friend, author and artist to design a beautiful cover. I started dropping the teasers well in advance. I built buzz for a cover reveal, followed by the event; I literally did everything right in the promotion of it. I’m sure there was more, but I put all my time, efforts and everything I’d learned into it.

Very little happened. *crickets play*

Perhaps we really do need to withhold judgment until book ten. I don’t know. Seemingly every day we read about someone hitting it big with a first effort. Perhaps it really is not in the cards for me. Or you. Only God knows.

I did not pen this to be a rant. Nor did I hope to eclipse some record amount of comments, hoping to have so many people run to my aid for fear of me finally stepping over that ledge.

Let me just thank you well in advance now. I’m fine, and I appreciate the well-wishes. I’m not quitting. I have too many stories to tell…and I hope those of you who are in that same boat as I have stories to tell as well. It’s a tough business. However, it still is a very exciting time to be alive and find ourselves equipped with the gift of storytelling. For better or worse, I’ve published three novels that a handful of people seem to have enjoyed. You’ve written some things that people have enjoyed, too, right? If nothing else, we need to remember that it really is tough for everyone, and that we are not alone in that boat. Let’s take an evening to hold hands, pass the bottle around, sing some songs and celebrate our gift!

And then let’s get back to work.

Let’s not quit. Regret is a terrible thing. We’ll stop when the fingers no longer work well enough to hit these keyboard keys, or perhaps when they pull the damned plug.

I had hoped to spend the rest of the year promoting/networking. Now it appears I’m shutting that down to simply begin the next project. If you don’t hear from me it’s because I’m in the writers’ cave, using my two hours a day to write instead of network - thanks to my 11 hour day job.

I’ll be back. I promise.

I hope you will be as well.

We’ll talk soon.     

Balancing Life with The Writer Stuff

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. I trust you had a fine Easter holiday. My teacher wife and two teenagers were off from school. My oldest actually went on a trip to New York City for a choir performance with his high school jazz choir. We did not travel with the group this time as we did last year for the Wind Ensemble trip to Carnegie Hall. We could have gone, but decided to stay home and worry instead. *laughs* Actually, we have college to begin paying for this year, so that was chiefly the reason.


We did take a few days and travel down to Anaheim, California. No, we didn't go to Disneyland... Yes, I know. There's a special place in Hell for people who get that close to the Magic Kingdom, but don't go in! We only live 3 hours away, so we go quite frequently. This time was for an Angel's baseball game and some really good food and shopping in either the Garden Walk mall or the Downtown Disney section between the parks.

How are all of you doing these days? I battled the blues a bit recently. You know the drill: Why am I killing myself with all of this work, effectively working two jobs? What’s the point? Few are reading my book, so I need to promote it more… However, the more I promote, the less I actually write another…

I’m okay now. We all go through those feelings, don’t we? Having said all of that, I do think I need to re-evaluate once again. I’ve done a much better job with networking of late – many of you no doubt have noticed me lurking about your blogs. I see many more still, but sometimes do not have time to leave comments. I know that I have more followers now and I need to check those out and see if I have yet to follow back, etc. One could easily network all day long, am I right?

The question remains: am I a blogger or a writer? Ultimately, I’m a writer. I know this. You know this. And you know this about yourselves, too.

I was taking my writing to work with me there for a while until it dawned on me that bringing a virus to work on my USB might not be the best idea that I have ever had, so I have since discontinued this risky endeavor. Since that only leaves a few hours after work with which to get writing in, I haven’t been able to do so, instead spending all my free time networking. I considered buying an iPad. I could then take my writing to work with me without penalty (I’m a supervisor at my day job, so I have some down opportunities amongst the 11 hours spent there). On the other hand, aren’t I paying enough for Internet? Good Lord! Between the High Speed at home and the 2 iPhones, we don’t need another bill. In the meantime, I am only writing on Saturday mornings. It is usually a very productive time, but not nearly enough.

What I am trying to do is read through the blog posts that I want to visit from my iPhone while at work, and then quickly commenting en mass when I get home. I hate attempting to comment from my trusty iPhone because it's too frustrating on such a small device. I have only been trying this procedure for a couple of weeks. This week, I hope to begin writing for an hour each day. Hopefully, I will be able to do this, as well as visit a few blogs. If not, I might have to drastically cut down on the amount of blogs I visit throughout the week. I hope it doesn't come to that.

We’ll see what happens. It is all a constant re-evaluation. I have one book released. I have another which is to be released sometime this summer. I'm very pleased with the development on my third novel, but finding that time to write has proven elusive. Beyond that, I can think of two other projects that I would love to begin.

I just don’t have the time...

My sons are getting older, too, and I spend very little time with them. I’m talking about real time, not just saying hello and bumping into them in the hallway or at the dinner table.

Everything just continues to be a constant re-evaluation. I'll continue shaking things up as needed with regard to what I refer to as: The Writer Stuff. What I absolutely refuse to do is let our friendships die because I just disappeared to write more.

It's that dreaded and mythical word: Balance. How are you dealing with it right now? Are you winning that battle or not? I'd love to hear your tricks as well as your steadfast rules or stance on juggling The Writer Stuff.

So, to that end, we’ll talk soon.

Keeping From Drowning

Greetings and salutations, Fire Enthusiasts. Thanks so much for dropping by and hanging out with me for a few minutes. I realize that there is plenty of competition for your time and hardly any of that as it is! And this is precisely what I have come to talk about this week.

You see, I feel bad when I don’t spend enough time with you guys. When I started writing again a few years ago, finished the novel and found my publisher, it was all about me. It was about the first of many novels which would propel me into the consciousness of the world, or at least my little part of it. *laughs* Back then, I had no idea that any of you were here already or about to join me in this crazy pursuit that more often than not consumes us and drives us beyond normal means to get our words out into the world.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that there was a wonderful community of writers and/or readers out there. During that first year, many of you held me up and tirelessly encouraged me to hold the course in spite of newbie roadblocks, obstacles and potholes in the road before me…and us. Now, I feel like one of those tireless encouragers (is that even a word?), and I love that!

My part of the Packaging Department Office. Forgive the tape on the window.

The Problem: You’ll recognize it because it’s probably your problem, too. I have between 4:30 pm and 8:00 pm, and that’s it. During this time it's shuttling kids around, appointments, eating dinner and cleaning the kitchen, and occasional performances at the schools for those kids that I mentioned. It makes it tough to keep up with everything that you guys are up to, though I try.

Working and writing: I have an 11 hour day job (which I have whined about many times) which I have to wake up for at an ungodly hour. I sneak my writing in during coffee breaks and finally on Saturday morning where I have a chunk of time before the house wakes up.

Reading: I pretty much only read before bed. This also helps to tire my eyes and to induce sleep. When I’ve got something really good to read, I take trusty Kindle to work with me and read there. That’s good news for many of you guys because I’ve only been reading indie books for a year and a half. That’s how well written your books are to me. *raises glass in toast* Speaking of reading, my TBR pile is literally a mound of books. I’m getting through them as fast as I can, but…

When I need to get away from the house noise, I retreat to the bedroom.

Networking: Throughout the day I am attached to my trusty iPhone, constantly sorting through e-mail and blog posts that I have delivered to my inbox (As a side note, if you have yet to add this feature to your sites, I highly recommend it. It saves so much time, rather than readers having to go hunting for your posts). I save the ones that I really want to address and delete the rest. It hurts, but there is no time for them all. When I get home I go through what I have saved and visit everyplace that I can.

Promotion: Throughout the day, I might tweet or Facebook post about my book or my one blog post a week, but I really try and keep that to a minimum. I get so much more enjoyment re-tweeting, sharing and "liking" what you guys have going on. Any more promotion than that is really only spam, isn’t it? Eventually, it becomes invisible, skipped or deleted without a second thought. It’s sad, but the reality.

The reason my left knee hurts now. Lol!

The Why: Why did I explain all of that? Really, the answer is because I care, and want you to understand that more often than not, I’m barely treading water. You'll notice that I didn’t mention anything about articles that I write or housework or the treadmill that we just bought to help defeat this rapidly increasing middle of mine. My hope is that by the end of the week, I will have “liked” a post or two of yours, re-tweeted, or shown you some #Writer Wednesday and #Follow Friday love, and said hello to you on your blog or website. Often I read your posts but have little to add, and the last thing that I want to do is simply add some lame comment that takes up more of our time. There’s already very little time in the day as it is. #justsayin’

By the way, if I haven't thrown you some Twitter love, blame the Follow Friday app that I use. I could never forget any of you. *grins*

How do you guys keep from drowning? I'd love to hear your advice and recommendations. We've been holding each other up for a couple of years now, haven't we?

I think my cat has the best idea yet. 

We’ll talk soon.

Perspective, Treadmills and iTunes

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. So glad to have you stop by. In fact, I'd like to thank everyone who dropped by this past week as we discussed errors in novels and the meaning of it all in the grand scheme of things. If you haven't read that post yet, I encourage you to do so. You can do it now, if you'd like. Go ahead. We'll wait...

*laughs*

In all seriousness, you were right. The novel is being enjoyed and many readers have been asking for the sequel (It's coming. I promise). No one seemed to have even noticed the errors that I had discovered, so why should I worry about it. I have heard back from my publisher and am told that the errors will be corrected in the near future, which is fabulous news.

In any event, I was getting so many visits to the post, and so many comments, that I didn't have time to stop and think about what I would post this week. Can you tell? Speaking of comments, what did the powers that be do this time? Did we just lose the ability to follow replies now? *sigh* Can't they just leave well enough alone? I'm sure it's only at Blogger, but it is very frustrating. I suppose I should keep my complaining down just in case Big Brother is watching.

I'm just kidding. I love Blogger! I think it's the greatest site evah!!

Courtesy of CBS

Yes, Sheldon. That was sarcasm! Do you guys watch The Big Bang Theory? It's hysterical, isn't it?

Alright, let's move this thing along, shall we? Last weekend we had a treadmill delivered. For those of you who remember, I used to run after work. I ran between 2 and 5 miles nearly everyday. I stopped that for a while and began doing floor exercise instead. I ended up stopping that as well. Due to too damn much writer stuff (mini rant), I lost interest as I tried my best to juggle everything. Now I have ten pounds that I need to get rid of! Hence the treadmill!


The only issue that I ever had with running was with my feet, but Inserts cured that. So, I stretched and ran to my heart's content; 3 miles the first day and 4 the next. Since then, not so much! I messed up my left knee, pushing myself too hard. Now I'm working my way back. That has been very frustrating, too. I suppose I should worry that I damaged the knee more than just overworked it. We'll see. I'm sure it has less to do with the 3 and 4 miles I ran, then it does with the 43 that I will be turning later this month. *grins*

Next, on Friday night, while I had 100 windows open on trusty laptop, it froze on me and the screen went black. Eventually, the music that I was listening to came back, but nothing else. I forced it to close, but when it came back up, my iTunes library had been wiped out. Now, everything was on my hard drive and was reloaded, but my OCD is screaming because I have duplicates of too many songs and my album covers have been...ahem,  messed up.


It is a darn good thing that the mini rant is long over or that could have been ugly. ;)


Perhaps it is a due to last week's gained perspective or just because I am too darn busy to worry about it, but I have yet to begin repairing that music library. In the past I would have locked myself in a room in order to finish it before going to sleep. Right now, however, I really am not going to worry about it.

There's no way in hell I'm going to be plugging my iPod or iPhone into my computer, however.

If my library gets wiped off of my iPod, there will be no mini rants forthcoming! I may be maturing in my old age, but not that much! One last fact for you: I was listening to John Mayer when this dreadful thing took place. I blame him.

We'll talk soon.

Monday Morning Musings

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. How was your week? Mine was busy, as always, but also quite rewarding, as you'll see.

Many thanks to my buddy, Ellie Garratt. She hosted the Star Trek Blogfest last week. It was very cool, reading through each list and meeting new people. It was also educational for me, because I never paid much attention to any of the other Star Trek series or films. My allegiance was always to the original cast. It wasn't intentional. It's just how it all worked out. Anyway, I gained a bunch of new followers out of the blogfest who I look forward to getting to know better. *waves to new friends* If I missed any of your blog posts last week it was because it took me three days to get through the Star Trek posts. I believe it was nearly fifty.

On Friday morning, I happened to come across a Facebook Page entitled, Novel Publicity. They were doing a chain where you posted the link on your page, along with a simple sentence which alerted participants that you knew the rules of the game and intended to play along. Next, we posted on the Novel Publicity post and then headed off into cyberspace to meet new people. It took quite awhile getting through the list and saying hello to everyone participating; however, by the time it was all said and done, my author's page on Facebook had jumped nearly 100. Out of that number I did manage to find a few familiar faces that I already knew. Although only a few appear to share my darker genre, I think there are many that we'll find share some things in common, and will end up being friends out of the deal. I plan to join again next week if I'm able. Perhaps I'll see you there.

On the reading front, I have been reading Drood by Dan Simmons. It is a huge book that I picked up at Borders when we were in Monterey, California last month. It is the story of real-life Charles Dicken’s supposed infatuation with a mysterious character that ends up consuming the last years of his life. Unfortunately, I only have about a half hour each night to read, and although the novel is very interesting and intriguing, I can’t find any other time to read. No matter how good the novel is, I read in bed before going to sleep, since it helps to tire me out. When do some of you writers find the time to read?

Speaking of writing, by the time that you read this post, I should be doing an edit/rewrite on my second novel, the sequel to Dance on Fire. It is currently entitled, Dance on Fire: Flashpoint. Before I do that, however, I need to get going on my next article for Kings River Life Magazine. I’m writing about a very talented gentleman that composes, performs and leads choirs. His music has been played all over the world. He teaches and actually leads worship in our church. It should be interesting.

How are your stress levels, my friends? I’m not going to repeat myself here; most of you are aware of my day and little time I have to do anything. A week ago, I took most of Saturday and Sunday to clean my house–I had neglected it that much. Now, with the work that remains on my novel, plus the itch inside me to begin writing book three, I am really beginning to need to clear my desk, as it were. It may be time yet again to reevaluate what takes up my time.

How about you guys? Kids are back in school, so do we have more time to write or less?

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week. I hope our paths cross more than once, whether it be the blogs, Twitter, Facebook or any of the other social networks. Are any of you on Google + yet? I'm not, but would like to be. Do we still need to be invited? If anyone knows the scoop on that, I'd love to hear it.

We'll talk soon.

One Week Later and other updates

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. I hope everyone is doing well; busy reading, writing, editing, promoting, selling, etc. Wherever you find yourself, I hope you are happy. If you simply love to read and talk about books, I hope you have found some great stories out there. If writing is your dream, I hope your dreams are coming to fruition. I know mine are.

Last week, I wrote of attempting to turn over a new leaf with regard to networking. I just found that with my limited amount of time, that I was spending way too much time posting items that few were reading. It wasn’t a matter of me throwing a fit or being upset about it or anything. It was simply a fact. And I think I knew why, which was: I hadn’t been visiting anyone’s blogs either.

So I decided that I would instead focus on writing one piece per week and spend the rest of the week doing promotion for it, as well as to visit the blogs of others. Hopefully by this time many, if not all of you, have already caught me prowling about your pages. *winks*

Once again, please don’t think of this as me being upset. I want to know what you guys are up to. I want to help promote not only my stuff but yours as well, as I can. Not only have I read some of your books this year, but I have adored them, too. I was missing out on a lot things that you guys were up to, and I do not like that. The upside of me more closely following the blogs and doings of others is the wonderful fact that people returned the favor and visited me. Hopefully, this will be a new direction and not simply a recent and short-lived fad...

Updates:

This month my edits are supposed to return to me for Dance on Fire: Flash Point. Beyond that, I have two articles that I wrote for Kings River Life Magazine: one was on my town’s community band, which holds concerts in the park; while the second article is a profile of the Kingsburg Police Chief. That one will be going live this coming Saturday. I also just had a review come out Saturday that I did a few months ago on the delightful novel Menopause in Manhattan by my buddy Anne Kleinberg. My editor is always looking to do reviews and was good enough to want to use this one.

Other than that, I simply press forward. I have two library events coming up. The first will be in my hometown which is the site where my novel takes place. If you have yet to read my novel and you like e-books, then you are in luck! *grins* This month, Smashwords is having a sale. You can get my book for almost nothing. If you would rather have the signed softcover version, send me a note. I'm sure we can work something out. *grins again*

We'll talk soon. 

Networking Responsibilities?!?

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. Hopefully, fire is not the operative word where you live now that it is blazing hot in most places and, more importantly, fire season. The only thing that I want burning are my poor characters…in a manner of speaking.

Today, I thought I would go over some of my networking responsibilities. I use that word because I feel a desire to assist others since I like it very much when you all assist me. I have mentioned many times that it isn’t easy with the crazy schedule that I am keeping, mostly due to my 11 hour day job. I may be selling a few books now, especially now that I am doing author events; however, I don’t feel that it should relieve me of any duties to my buddies out there in the blogosphere.

I write one to two blog posts (such as this one) a week for myself, an article or two a month for Kings River Life Magazine and once in a while I write a post for Something Wicked This Way Comes. If I do not have any pressing deadlines, then I typically focus on catching up with comments that are left for me on anyone of several of the social networks: Facebook, Twitter, GetFanged, etc. If I have read anything of late, then I update Goodreads, Shelfari and Amazon with the information/review. Beyond that, I try to promote my novel a bit.

With the time that I have left, I usually focus on Twitter first, by re-tweeting particularly interesting or noteworthy tweets of others. On Wednesday and Friday I do my best to participate with Writer Wednesday (#WW) and Follow Friday (#FF), by listing the links of my friends, mates, buddies and secret crushes (just checking to see whether I still had your attention… Or was I?).

With Facebook, I try to “like” the pages of others as well as comments of note. I especially enjoy dropping people a line on their birthdays. This past year on my birthday, it was such a thrill, having so many people reach out to me. It was better than any gift I could have received.

Lastly, as time permits, I try and visit the blogs. I hate to simply say “hello” and vanish. If the post attracts my attention, I like to leave a quick note of some merit.

That’s basically where I’m at for the moment. How do you guys do it? Do you feel the way I do about blogging and networking with/for others? How do you guys manage your blogosphere day?

Notice that I didn’t mention anything about writing fiction? Soon the edits will arrive in my e-mail for Dance on Fire: FlashPoint. When they do, I'm going to need to make time for those. Then I need to begin working on the next WIP. *sigh*

I guess that I really shouldn't complain, should I? After all, I am living the dream.

Aren't I?

Oh, and Happy 4th of July, America.

We'll talk soon.