Check-in – Writing Wrongs

Keeping the (writing) faith

Anno asked me some questions a few weeks back that I’ve been ruminating on ever since. The one that’s been dominating my thoughts is this one:

Given the challenges of modern publishing, what helps you keep faith with your work?

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? Things are fraught* right now in publishing, whether you’re pursuing traditional or indie publishing.

The thing that helps me the most is this:

Despite everything, I still get to tell the stories I want to tell. No one can take that away from me.

A four-book series about catching ghosts with coffee? Why not?

Sentient umbrellas? Absolutely!

Indie publishing is simply how I get my stories into the world. Because, let’s be real, traditional publishing isn’t knocking on the door and making offers for either of those series**.

It’s hard, I’m not going to lie, to keep training your focus on those things you control. I struggle with it all the time. More is more has seeped into every aspect of our culture, especially work and creative endeavors.

But it’s simply not the case. It’s a lie big tech is telling us to keep us online and distracted.

So, I put my focus on those things I control:

My stories
My blog
My mail list

And, this year, I’m adding:

In-person events
Local independent bookstores
A direct-sales store

Yesterday is a perfect example of why I love being indie. It was a rainy, bleak Saturday. I had the sniffles, and while I had a shed-ton of chores to do, I didn’t feel up for any of them***.

So I said to myself: Let’s build an online direct-sales store.

And I did.

It’s not complete, not yet. Once it is, I’ll reveal it here. I want to have it done in time for the Deep Valley Book Festival.

Then, when I was wrapping up for the day, my new table display bookstand arrived:

Bookstand with several of my books on display

So, all things considered, I’m feeling fairly hopeful today.

*I used fraught in a text conversation the other day and got the laughing/crying emoji as a response.

**Another use case for the laughing/crying emoji.

***But do I ever? Yet another case for the laughing/crying emoji.

Adventures in pet-sitting (and grocery shopping)

During this long weekend, I am pet-sitting for these two adorable siblings:

That’s Daisy and Taco, my furry grandchildren.

I also managed a trip to Half-Price Books to fill up my Little Free Library. And I did some grocery shopping. I asked my daughter what I could pick up for her, and she gave me a list. Good enough. Except for when I came to this item:

Potatoes.

So, I asked via text.

Me: What kind of potatoes?

Her: Normal.

Me: …

Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.

Me: What is normal? Gold? Potatoes for baking?

A bit of an existential question, that: what is normal? Also, what is normal when it comes to potatoes?

Her: Ya just potatoes

Her: Like raw

Her: That I can cut up and put in soup

Ah. Gold it is, then.

I’ll leave you with that. Hopefully next week (this week?) we’ll return to regularly scheduled blogging.

Gearing up for the Deep Valley Book Festival

I’m no longer living in a construction zone! On a related topic, words you never want to hear in the same sentence: water and structural damage.

It’s been a long haul, but the water damage has been repaired! And I have new patio doors, which I’ve been gazing at and through. I even put up an extra hummingbird feeder, although that doesn’t seem to have stopped the territorial battles.

Hummingbirds = fierce

So, a month or two back, I was apparently feeling extra sassy, and I put myself on the exhibitor waitlist for the Deep Valley Book Festival. I didn’t think I’d get a table, and if I did, well, that was a problem for future Charity.

Yes, you’ve guessed it. I now have a four-foot table at the festival. Not only that, but they also invited me to be on the author panel (!).

I’ve been busy creating things for my table: business cards, a pricing sheet, an ebook postcard giveaway, and bookmarks for Booking Through Thursday.

Collage of author assets, including bookmarks and business cards

I’ve also been mentally gearing up for the author panel. The topic is:

Ever wonder where authors get their ideas, how they create memorable characters, or what really happens behind the scenes of writing and publishing a book? This lively, audience-driven panel puts you in charge of the conversation. Bring your questions and ask our participating authors anything about their books, their writing journeys, and the creative process!

I’m hoping for more than a deer-in-the-headlights response and “I have no idea. It just happens.” That wouldn’t be very lively.

If any of you would like to lob some practice questions my way, I’d appreciate it. I’ll also answer them here on the blog.

Happy Sunday. I’m off to refill my hummingbird feeders and referee some pitched battles.

Summer slips away

Seriously? How is summer suddenly slipping away? Between COVID and the construction zone, I seem to have lost some time.

At least my hydrangeas are on point.

Lime and pink hydrangeas — My hydrangeas, showing off

And now that I have my energy back, I’m once again taking longer walks in the wetlands.

Gravel path beneath trees in the wetlands. — You can already see that hint of autumn in the leaves

Plus! Editing! Here’s my current editing stack:

Printed pages and notebook for editing — Hand edits and notes for *The Marigold Miracle*

Parts I and II of The Marigold Miracle have been redrafted. That stack of pages above is Part III. Yes, Part III happens to be 183 pages, which for some writers is a novel. Y’all, I’m not sure why I decided to write such big books, but here we are.

Slow and steady and all that. I will turtle my way through this edit.

Now if only summer would slow down just a bit.

Construction zone

It’s a construction zone around here, so if I’m a little scarce, that’s why. Booking Through Thursday will go on, as ever. But I may not make my weekly check-in.

Yesterday, I did manage to water the garden and clean up a bit (and find the extra flooring the contractors might need). And I made some vegetarian chili and some chia seed pudding. These feel like major achievements.

I haven’t been able to write that much (the noise, people in my space, the dogs (in a spare bedroom), barking at people in our space). But I’ve been getting other things done, like setting up Square and cover refreshes, so I’ve actually been pretty productive.

At the very least, I’ll be back on Thursday for another round of BTT. See you then!

Negative! At long last!

Finally, finally I tested negative this morning. For the last couple of days, I was in that in-between spot: not truly sick, but not fully recovered, and feeling cranky because I didn’t have the energy to do ALL the things.

You know that saying everyone has the same twenty-four hours a day? Well, I’m here to tell you, they don’t. In fact, that saying has always left me feeling a little salty. It made me feel even saltier after I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that left me with no small amount of brain fog.

So, I did what I always do when I’m feeling a little salty:

I wrote a story about it.

“Just a Matter of Time” first appeared in Sucker Literary Magazine (which is still available in Kindle Unlimited) with ten other young adult short stories. Young adult short stories have always been a hard sell, and I was so excited that editor Hannah Goodman picked up my story for the anthology.

“Just a Matter of Time” should be free everywhere, but if it isn’t on your retailer of choice, drop me a note, and I’ll send you a BookFunnel link.

When life gives you lemons, or in my case, COVID

Well, this was fun. What I thought was a mere summer cold turned out to be COVID. Because, of course, it did.

I realized it was more than a cold when I attempted to get out of bed the other day, and that proved somewhat difficult, as did feeding the cat. (What? You think the cat can be denied? No, she cannot.)

So, I’ve been taking it very easy these past few days. I’m better, and definitely upright. I retook the test this morning, and it’s still coming back positive, so no outings for me.

I’m starting to get cabin fever.

But I have plenty to read and binge-watch, so there’s that.

Wishing you all a COVID-free week.

In which I confront fearsome creatures in the wild (or at least my garden)

Between the heat and the wildfire smoke, I have been confronting fearsome creatures in the wilds of my yard.

First up? This predator:

Tabby cat in a garden bed between sedum and salvia.

The neighbor’s cat has taken to lounging around like it’s queen of the world. It also left me a tribute: a dead mouse. (No picture of that; you can thank me later.)

On the positive side, I think it (or its orange tabby friend) has taken care of whatever borrowing critter was disrupting my garden beds.

Then, there are these turkeys. No, really, they’re turkeys.

They are still wandering through the yard once or twice a day. Glad I can provide a smorgasbord for them.

On the other hand? These two troublemakers:

These two show up every day and try to stealthily eat the hosta plants in the front yard. I have to be careful about shooing them away since they tend to bolt into the road out front. Also, that one in the back may be a ten-point buck. Impressive.

Last, but not least, this fellow:

I think it’s some kind of woolly caterpillar. I believe it’s native (that seems to be the consensus from internet searches). In any case, it’s napping, not eating. Plus, that’s a marigold, which is one of nature’s pest controls.

The grass is, once again, up past my ankles. I need to go rinse off all the bug spray and check for the most fearsome creature of all: the deer tick.

Like a house finch

I sometimes feel exactly how this fledgling house finch looks.

Fledgling male house finch at the hummingbird feeder

What am I doing?
Is this edible?
Where’s Mom?

Maybe it’s the thunderstorms and fireworks we’ve had all weekend long. I should go out and weed the garden, but the grass is up past my ankles, and it’s far too soggy for that. For today, I’m letting the jungle continue.

Even so, I’ve made a fair amount of progress on the revision this week, and I’m pleased.

The next challenge, of course, is weaving the new scenes back into the narrative. I have a dual-timeline narrative (because I can’t make things easy on myself; I suspect when I stare at the manuscript, I look like the house finch above), and I pulled the two narratives apart to work on each separately.

Always a thrill ride, this writing thing.

Speaking of this writing thing: writers, heads up!

If you don’t already follow the Writer Beware blog, head on over there. This week, Victoria Strauss breaks down clues to spotting an email scam. If you publish your work, eventually you will end up with one (or many) of these in your inbox. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that.

That’s it for this week. Today I plan to read while expressly ignoring the jungle.

Happy Sunday, everyone!