It Wasn't Exactly Writer's Block

 

I’m happy to announce the release of my latest book, The Cottage on Dare Lake, the second book in the Dare Lake trilogy.

Almost three years have passed without publishing a new book. My last book was released in October 2020. Sure, I wrote some new material off and on over the last few years, but I couldn’t quite push myself hard enough to complete a manuscript.

I enjoy the fiction I create. A lot. So what happened? What got in the way of my creative output? Life. That’s what happened.

So a little background. In 2020, I did the work I need to do to reactivate my CPA license, and along with that, my work hours, responsibilities, and workload increased. As I’ve said before, accounting is a skill I learned to support my writing habit. (Which, by the way, includes my traveling habit. Because I absolutely must travel to research settings for my books, right?)

On to what happened. The first big thing that stalled my writing progress was the birth of my first grandchild. I spent a lot of time in 2021 caring for my grandson. He calls me Nana.  No regrets for the hiatus during this time. Spending time bonding with my little buddy is one of the greatest joys of my life. My accounting hours took a hit. I spent less time on the job and more time with the family. No regrets. Though my writing time suffered. It was almost non-existent.

Then in 2022, as the 2021 tax season approached (As a CPA, I always lived in the past), I made a promise to my employer to make up for the previous year’s decreased hours. I worked my posterior off during the 2021 tax season, which officially ended in October 2022. BUT I still spent a lot of time with the grandson BECAUSE his mom was expecting another baby, my second grandchild, and she needed my support as the birth of grandson number 2 approached. What’s a Nana to do? I have my priorities. My writing time was once again limited because I still had that accounting job.

Years ago, I read a book about trimming the excess branches off my tree of life. You know, getting rid of things that don’t add value or meaning to your life. I was in a good spot to do some trimming as I had just reached retirement age. (Sorry, I don’t remember the name of the book any longer and a browser search didn’t help me locate it.)

In September 2022, my husband and I took a much-needed vacation to Washington state to visit Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Park, which included lots of day hiking. It was a good time to reflect on my life and how it had changed, and more importantly, what my life was missing. By the time I got home and back on the accounting job, I’d made up my mind. It was time to retire. I put in my years as a CPA, and I still have priorities that don’t include surviving another tax season.

So now, I spend time with both of my grandsons and have plenty of time to write. I’ve spent more time on my hobbies, like scrapbooking and baking. After nine years of public accounting, I finally feel like my life is back in balance.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here it is halfway through another year, and I wonder where the months went and what have I accomplished so far this year. It’s been a busy year already. I knew it would be. The first four and a half months were spent doing tax returns for other people. I barely got mine filed on time. As an accountant, I find the thing I like doing least is my own accounting. I hate reconciling my bank account, and I detest doing my own taxes. I can do that for other people, but mine seems to languish. Truthfully, I haven’t reconciled my bank account in months. That’s really bad since I’ll roll my eyes when one of my clients does the same thing.

When I started thinking about all the stuff I’d have to take care of this year, I panicked. Will I have any time to do something fun?

After reflecting on everything I have to get done this year, my head starts to hurt. I need some down time, I tell myself. With a heavy sigh, my mind turns toward a few of my favorite things. (Thank you very much Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music.)

SO here it is. A list of a few of my favorite things (not necessarily in any kind of order):

1.     Tex-Mex food – I could seriously eat Tex-Mex three times a day. Here is a picture of my favorite cheese enchilada recipe. 

You can find the recipe in  my original post about it here.

Dear Indie Author, Don't Be THAT Author

Dear Indie Author

Don’t be that author. You know the one, the author that makes the rest of us look...well, not so good. That one author to which critics compare all other indie authors.

There is a low opinion of indie authors among certain sectors of the reading community. One blogger’s opinion was so harsh it made me cringe. The stigma of self-publishing seems to be lifting as more and more authors choose to self-publish, even authors who have traditionally published with a big 5 New York press. The publishing industry as a whole is morphing and changing its publishing and marketing philosophy, and it’s hard to keep up with all the developments. It’s an exciting time to be an author.

I’m an indie author and make no apologies for it. My loyalty is to my author brand, not to any one publisher’s catalog. I’ve been published by four different small publishers and have a contract with a top tier, non-big five publisher. Yet recently I decided to self-publish. Why? To be blunt, I’ve practically done all the marketing and promotion for my published releases myself. If I’m doing most of the work, I might as well keep most of the royalties.

How an Accountant Becomes a Writer

Seriously? Do I look like an accountant?

How does an accountant become a writer? Well, I never intended to be an accountant. When I was in high school, I never dreamed I’d go to college. It seemed like something my lower middle class family wouldn’t be able to afford. In high school, I took courses with the plan to be an executive secretary. When my father told me he could manage to send me to college only months before I graduated high school, I was stunned. I certainly had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.

A general business degree seemed like the closest curriculum to being a secretary, so I enrolled and listed my major as general business. Of all the concentrations in general business, accounting made the most sense to me. At its basic level, it was simple. Asset = Liabilities + Equity. You couldn’t go wrong with a balanced equation like that. Okay, well, trust me, accounting isn’t always that simple. Sometimes we accountants have to get...creative. Accounting seems like an analytical, left-brain sort of thing to do, doesn’t it? One of my friends from high school told me at our ten-year reunion that she always knew I’d do something like accounting because I was so good in math. Uh, no. I wasn’t.

When I graduated from college with an accounting degree, I said I would be the most atypical accountant there ever was. Well, I'm not, but I might be coming pretty close.

I think there’s always been a deep well of inclination inside me to be something else, some more. I’ve always had the urge to creatively express myself. When I was in high school, my friend Brenda and I read every Harlequin romance we could get our hands on. Those romances inspired me. The ah-ha moments got to me every time. You know, those moments when the hero and heroine realize they love each other and can’t live without one another. That moment. Tugged at my heartstrings. I wanted to write something like that. So I wrote my first romance when I was in high school. Seventeen pages on school-ruled paper and an obvious rip off of the last romance I’d read. I don’t even have that story any longer. Just as well. It sucked.

When I was in my twenties, I tried writing songs. I can tell you right now that my lyrics never had the depth or complexity that my daughter’s lyrics do. She amazes me. Truth is, I was never meant to be a songwriter. Most of what I wrote will never see the light of day, but there was one song I thought was pretty good. I’ll share the lyrics with you at the end of this post. Once again, I tried to write a novel because I’d read so many Robert Ludlum books that the fast-paced, suspense-filled adventure with a hint of romance captured my imagination. At about the fourth chapter, I realized I lacked the skills to write such a novel and my suspense manuscript digressed into...well, a comedy. A spoof on the action adventure genre. I gave it up, fearing my efforts lacked credibility.

In my thirties, I was too busy being a part time accountant and a full time wife and mommy to do much of anything else. But then, I hit my forties and all that creativity that I had suppressed and the need to express myself just sort of burst in my mind. You see, I had this daydreaming habit. That kind of habit can be a bit...unhealthy if it goes too far. Thankfully, before it became a deep psychological problem, I turned all that daydreaming into a dream. I remembered the writing I had done when I was younger and realized that was a perfect outlet for my daydreams.

Now I call those dreams inspiration and don’t feel quite so guilty about spending my thoughtful times indulging in them. I spent a decade churning out one manuscript after another. I will always have something on my hard drive to edit and polish for the purpose of publication. And I keep coming up with new ideas. I’ll never run out stories. Not in this lifetime. So here I am with six books available for purchase and three more to come by the end of 2014. Seven more planned for 2015. Nope, I don’t plan to stop living the writing dream.

And that’s how an accountant becomes a writer.

Here’s the lyrics to that song I promised you. It’s call Cold December Morning. PS—When I wrote it, it wasn’t December. It was March. And no one has ever left me like that. I’ve been married to the love of my life for thirty plus years. So, no, this isn’t about my life and I don’t know where it came from.

Cold December Morning

Whisper to me softly

the things I want to hear.

Don’t tell me that you’re leaving.

It’s the thing that I most fear.

Don’t tell me that our love is cold

and gray just like the dawn.

On a cold December morning,

don’t say our love is gone.

Can you tell me truly

our love has been a lie?

Do you want to know the answer?

Do you even wonder why?

I keep clinging to the hope

our love’s not made of stone.

On a cold December morning.

don’t say our love is gone

Your bags are packed and ready.

They’re waiting in the hall.

Can you pass the moments of our life

still hanging on the wall?

Can you turn your back on all we had

and all that’s meant to be?

On a cold December morning,

will you come back to me?

You Might Be a Writer If... #amwriting

You might be a writer if...

1.  You stare into space as if you’re catatonic. You’re husband/son/daughter asks you, “Mom, are you okay?” You answer, “Yes, I’m just writing.” Because you write the scene in your head before you even touch your computer keyboard.

2.  You shamelessly listen to strangers’ conversations and don’t think of it as eavesdropping. No, you’re doing research for your next book and keeping a list on your cell phone’s notepad of interesting comments you’ve overheard. Then, you have no qualms about using those quotes.

3.  You wake up early in the morning, and the first thing you think about is the scene you wrote at 2 a.m. and how you could make it better. The last thing you think about before you close your eyes at night is how you’re going to write the next scene. Because you always have a work in progress.

4.  You have no problem killing someone...in your writing. You get by with murder and your readers love it. The pages of your books are littered with dead bodies and no one thinks of you as a serial killer.

5.  You often talk about your characters lives as if they are real people, and your family responds to your comments as if you are completely rational. Because to respond any other way elicits a snarl from you. Your family is almost as familiar with your characters as you are.

6.  You talk about plot, point of view, characterization, motive, goal, and conflict incessantly, and your loved ones just smile at you and go about whatever they were doing, knowing that you are in your writer’s zone. It’s like getting a non-verbal pat on the head.

7.  You worry about how you could have made your last book better...even after it’s published. Because no matter how long you’re in the business, there is always something new to learn about the art and craft of writing.

8.  You consider writer’s block to be worse than having a root canal. Worse than constipation. Worse than a recurring nightmare. Worse than that sinking feeling you get when you misplace your purse and you think you left it on a bench in the shopping mall.

9.  You embrace the idea that you’ll never be normal. You know you think differently from most people and you’re okay with that. After all, when it comes to fiction, normal is boring. Twisted is better.

10.      Your husband refers to your computer as Precious because it is never far from your side. If you misplace it, you suffer a panic attack. You obsessively back up your work...just in case your computer dies. Your computer is your best friend and you don’t think that’s sick.

Promo Is Killing Me!

I’d like to speak to my fellow writers...

Before I get started, let me say right off that I’m much more interested in gaining readers than making a ton of money. I realize I’m probably never going to make a fortune as a writer. What I’m looking for is the number of copies sold, so I will know how many books got into the hands of readers. I spent some time recently getting my information together to prepare my taxes for 2013. After I had tallied my royalties and promotional expenses, I realized 2013 was the first year of my writing existence that I’d made a profit. (Sorry—the accountant in me was just showing...) It surprised me how many books I’d sold. I was much more successful last year than I had imagined, so my goal this year is to at the least double the net amount of books (total copies “sold” less copies I gifted for promo purposes) I sell for royalty.

A new year has begun, and as writers we are all probably reevaluating our writing careers and refocusing our promotional strategies. At least we should be if we are determined to stay in the business, so I’m asking my fellow writers to help us help each other by answering a few questions about our marketing strategies in 2013. What worked for you and what didn’t?

Did you use twitter as a primary marketing tool?

If so, do you think this kind of exposure generated any sales? To me, it seems the majority of my followers are other writers. Are we even reading each other’s tweets? How often do you purchase a book based on a random tweet from someone you don’t already have a connection with?

Do you advertise on sites like The Romance Reviews, Night Owl Reviews, Story Finds, or Chick Lit Plus?

If so, how effective has this been in generating sales? Personally, I haven’t experienced increased sales from this kind of exposure. Does anyone pay attention to the ads on those sites? I’m guilty of just going on those sites and making sure my ad looks right. How often do you purchase a book based on an ad on one of those sites? I have. I thought Sharon Buchbinder’s book Obsession looked interesting, so I purchased a Kindle copy.

Do you promote your book on Facebook group pages?

If so, do you think you’ve generated any sales through this kind of exposure? I promoted heavily this way in the last half of 2013. I haven’t been able to tell if any sales were made due to this kind of exposure. Personally, I have purchased two books that I thought looked interesting based on the author’s promo on one of these sites.

Do you guest post frequently on other people’s blogs?

Does this kind of exposure generate sales? I have backed away from blogging this past year because it has been very frustrating to me due to the very slim number of commenters on blog posts. To me, blogging has become time consuming and generates very little sales activity. What has been your experience?

Do you ever purchase and review books from authors outside your author connections?

If so, how do you find new authors to read? In 2013, I bought some books from authors I wasn’t familiar with. Some of those books have been enjoyable reads and I went back to the author for another read. I also started a book review site, which has introduced me to some excellent authors.

Click on image to go to review blog!

My time is so limited these days, and I want to make every ounce of promotional energy count. So what say you, fellow authors? What has worked for you? Or are you just as frustrated as I am with your promotional efforts? Any and all feedback will be much appreciated!

Surviving the One Star Review

This one punched me in the gut. You know, like the scenarios in that commercial for insurance. Life comes at you fast. My first one star review knocked me on my butt. Although I never cried, I indulged in a pity party for a few days.

Does this mean I’m a real writer now? I didn’t think my book garnered enough attention to elicit such a negative response from a reviewer, especially a fellow author. Why would one author so thoroughly reject another author? We all know how difficult it is to take rejection. We’ve all been there. So why the harsh review? Why post the review on every social media site available? If I read a book that, in my opinion, is poorly written, I will decline to post my thoughts publicly out of respect for my fellow author.

The book never reached the New York Times Best Seller list. Heck, it’s never even reached the Amazon Best Seller list. The topic isn’t controversial. Yes, the book has some flaws. What book doesn’t? There is no such thing as the perfect book. If I had to do it over again, I’d adjust a few things. But then… I’ve learned a lot from being edited and from being an editor.

I had some concerns. How would this extremely negative review impact my sales? My reputation as a writer and an editor? My chances of ever signing a contract with an agent? My motivation to continue writing? My courage to request more reviews?

From this negative experience, I’d like to share a few thoughts that might help other authors survive the one star review with dignity and class and just maybe give some reviewers a few hints about writing a credible review.

Some advice for writers.

It is far more beneficial to the up and coming author to form alliances with other writers than to make enemies.

I’m going to admit it. My first reaction was the impulse to seek revenge. Retaliating would have accomplished nothing except to start a war, and from my personal experience, revenge is an empty pursuit and offers fleeting satisfaction. Revenge, anger, and hatred are bitter poison pills one swallows with the futile hope of injuring someone else. It is far better to avoid Negative Nancy than to engage her in useless debate over the merits of her review.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

I remember when my eleventh grade American History teacher told me I was entitled to my own opinions. What a revelation. I’ve been opinionated ever since! One harsh review is one person’s opinion. The opinion might have merit and it might not. A series of critical reviews all commenting on the same flaw deserves more attention from the author than a single negative review. What have I learned from my reviews? I know now that subtleties are lost on some people. I need to be obvious about how I close my suspense plotlines, especially in complicated plots with several different threads pulling together near the end of the book.

A good agent considers an author’s entire brand.

A writer friend had some great advice. Would I really want an agent that would reject me based on one negative review? If I ever make it to the NYT Best Seller list, I’m likely to get tons of negative reviews. In the long run, one bad review means nothing. I’m going to continue to write no matter what.

One negative review doesn’t impact sales.

My sales actually jumped a bit right after the review posted. Go figure that one! :) So I’m moving on. And…my book could use a few more reviews. Play nice…please. From everything I’ve researched, read, and observed, writers with multiple works published by the same publisher generate more sales than writers with a ton of 5 star reviews. I am going to admit it. I want my books to sell, not because I anticipate getting rich, but simply because I want others to read my work. There is no greater thrill for this writer than when a fan asks when my next book will be released.

Some advice for reviewers.

If you haven’t read the book, please don’t write a review.

Writers work too hard requesting reviews to receive a bogus review. I love it when it’s obvious the reviewer actually read my work. I don’t put much stock in a review if it’s questionable the reviewer ever opened the book. I’ve read so many reviews that appear to be generated from review services, not legitimate reviewers. $5 for 5 great reviews reads just like what it is. You get what you pay for. Most savvy readers can tell the difference.

When reviewing someone’s baby, please be aware there is a person behind the work, a person who may not take rejection well. 

As a writer, an editor, and a member of critique groups, I’ve reviewed other people’s work for years. The old adage works here. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. The “sandwich” review helps take the sting out of critical comments. Layer one—say something nice. Layer two—discuss the plotline. Layer three—make your critical comments. And I do mean critical, not mean-spirited. Layer four—say something nice.

Slamming a fellow author’s work doesn’t increase your book’s chances of climbing the best seller charts.

This type of competition is petty and wasted effort. With tons of aspiring authors out there vying for attention, dissing a fellow author accomplishes absolutely nothing. Slamming another author reveals lack of knowledge about how the publishing industry works and tarnishes the shine on the author-reviewer’s own brand.

Thankfully, I survived this experience, but not without going through the five stages of grief. I learned a lot in the process, and hopefully it has made me a better, more aware writer.

Characters Acting Badly and #MyMuse That Contributes to Their Delinquency

Sometimes the life of a full time writer can be…well, lonely. I mean, when I’m writing, the only company I have are my characters. If they started talking to me, I mean verbally, I think I’d freak.

My muse whispers in my ear in the middle of the night, but that’s something else entirely. There is no accounting for what she might say or do. If you doubt it, check out these posts.

http://denisemoncrief.blogspot.com/2013/03/conversation-with-mymuse-chocolate.html

http://denisemoncrief.blogspot.com/2013/01/conversations-with-my-muse-duct-tape.html

http://denisemoncrief.blogspot.com/2012/07/conversations-with-mymuse-ghost-edition.html

http://denisemoncrief.blogspot.com/2012/10/conversations-with-my-muse-accounting.html

Here is what I think my muse might look like…

Picture in public domain. Courtesy wiki commons.

Sometimes my characters are sort of like real people, you know. Today one of them just wouldn’t cooperate with me. I wanted her to do one thing and she hauled off and did another. This one has a mind of her own. I gave her a good talking to but she wouldn’t listen. Had to have it her way. It amuses me for a while to argue with them, but it’s not the same as talking with a living, breathing individual. I think she forgets she’s fictional. Am I going to have to restrain her?

Maybe this device would work…

Drawing in public domain. Courtesy wiki commons.

Do you think that would keep her in line? I mean, my characters should be careful not to annoy me. I just bought this coffee mug…

 

Mug can be purchased at cafepress.com

This mug means what I say and says what I mean, you know what I mean? I’ve done some nasty things to my characters. I even impaled one bad guy on a dead tree before it caught on fire and fell over the side of cliff into a deep gorge. My characters should quiver in fear of my fast tapping fingers. And my muse should stop leading them down the path toward destruction. When I tell my heroine to call my hero and make up with him, that's exactly what she should do!

Confessions of a Pantser

Every story begins with inspiration. Some little bit of something catches the eye or sparks the imagination. The writer overhears a conversation in a Chili’s in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport that starts the thought processes rolling. There is a hill in northwest Arkansas that has an abandoned house just sitting up there on top of it, buffeted by the wind, waiting for someone to write a ghost story with the dilapidated old thing as the setting. Then a news story catches her attention, and she wonders why in the world that guy did that thing with the sharpie that he did. And off the writer goes with a few what if questions like… What if someone used a major catastrophe like a hurricane or a bombing as a perfect opportunity to disappear? Next thing you know, she’s tapping out the first few paragraphs of a brand new story.

Start with a spark that creates a great setting, an inspired character, or a fabulous opening scene, then add a hero, a heroine, and an antagonist, and don’t forget a major conflict and a nail-biting life or death pivotal the-book-hinges-on-this-one-moment scene, and you’ve got the basic ingredients for romantic suspense.

In between the opening hook and the final nail biter scene, there is a lot of territory to cover, and it is in that middle as yet undefined land where I confess I am a certified pantser. I don’t know where my story’s going in the middle until I write it. Oftentimes, my characters will decided what happens in the in-betweens. For instance, just last week my hero’s ex-girlfriend was murdered. Did my hero kill her, you ask? No, of course not. Heroes don’t murder their ex-girlfriend’s, but he certainly didn’t see the crisis coming and neither did I!

So I’m going to let my imagination run away with me for a moment. Bear with me. Let me set up the situation for you. I’m going to put my hero, my heroine, and my antagonist in a dark room and just sort of go from there. Okay, I’ll give them a dim 20 watt light bulb dangling from the ceiling, just so they won’t be scared of the dark. I’ll name my hero Unnamed, my heroine Undefined, and my antagonist Unwritten.

And action…

Unnamed: Man, it’s dark in here. Why doesn’t she put a window in this place?

Undefined: I don’t know.

Unnamed: Oops, I forgot. You don’t have an opinion, because she hasn’t given you a personality yet. She should at least give you some...she should make you friendly or…something.

Bubbly: Oh, right! Maybe she hasn’t given me a personality yet because she’s busy or she’s thinking about sorting her underwear drawer or the cat barfed up tuna or her baby is squalling…or wow why is it so dark in here? And why is everything black? And who’s that guy over there that doesn’t say anything? He’s kind of scary. (Giggles.)

Unnamed: Oh, no.

Miss Optimistic (Name changed from Bubbly/Undefined.): What? What’s wrong? I can tell there’s something wrong, but cheer up. Everything is going to be fine. We have this nice room, and I know she’s going to give us a window soon. Ah, look over there! She did it! She did it!

Unnamed: Yep, she made you a ding-a-ling.

Grouchy (Another name change for Miss Optimistic/Bubbly/Undefined.): What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not going to talk to you. And… (Stares mean at Unwritten.) Stop staring at me.

Unnamed: He can’t respond. She hasn’t written him yet. And you don’t have to get all huffy.

Grouchy: Oh, so now you’re an expert on how she writes, Mr…Mr…What is your name?

Unnamed: I don’t know.

Grouchy: Oh, that’s right, she hasn’t named you yet. She should call you Ralph.

Ralph (Name changed from Unnamed.): I don’t like the name Ralph. I’d rather be Chad.

Snarky (And yet another name change for Grouchy/Miss Optimistic/Bubbly/Undefined.): You would like the name Chad! (Examines fingernails as if she doesn’t care when she really does.) She should do something about the stone statue over there. She should at least give him a scowl.

Tank (Name changed from Unwritten.): (No dialogue only rumbling noises like a tank.)

Chad (Name changed from Ralph/Unnamed): (Glances around nervously at the black walls.) We need a door so we can get away from him.

(Door appears as if by magic.)

Smiley: (Grabs Tank’s upper arm.) Come on, Handsome, I’d rather leave with you. (Throws snotty smirk over shoulder at Chad as Tank, who used to be Unwritten, opens the door for her.) You’re much better looking than Mr. Bossy.

Handsome (Name changed from Tank/Unwritten): You look lovely today, Smiley.

Mr. Bossy (Name changed from Chad/Ralph/Undefined): Hey, come back here!

…and scene.

Who knew the heroine would leave with the antagonist? Did you? I didn’t.

Finding My Passion

(c) 2012 Denise Moncrief

A few years ago (I won’t tell you how many), I hit the ripe old age of forty and thought my life was over. Why not? When the entertainment industry projects the idea of valuable womanhood to be young, ultra thin, and beautiful? I no longer felt young. I’ve never been ultrathin. (The smallest size I’ve ever worn was a six, but my appetite was off at the time. Now, one of my legs wouldn’t fit into a size zero!) And as far as beautiful goes? I’m beautiful on the inside. That’s what matters, right?

In the midst of my mid-life crisis, I was desperately searching for something to give my life meaning. I’d trained to be an accountant, but I was never going to be a partner in an accounting firm. The desire to give it all for something so…boring just wasn’t there, so I wasn’t going to reach the pinnacle of accounting success. What can I say? Accounting is not my passion. Never has been. Now it’s something I do part time to make a few bucks so I can afford to do things I’d rather do.

I’d always loved music, but there’s no venue for a middle-aged singer. By the time it appeared on the American cultural landscape, I was already too old to try out for American Idol. In my twenties, when I could have pursued the dream, I wrote a few songs, learned a few chords, and sang numerous songs with recording artists. Of course, none of them were aware of our duets. I had no idea where to begin a musical career and I was a long way from the center of the recording industry.

Maybe I played around with writing lyrics for a while because I’ve always been fascinated with the power of words. Maybe that’s why I devoured so many books, regretting the end of the story as if I’d said goodbye to a trusted friend, a dependable comforter. The right word can change more than the meaning of a sentence. It sets the tone of what’s being expressed. Whether lyrics or literature, words create moods and foster memories.

So at the ripe old age of forty, I found my passion. I’d deserted it for years, but when I searched for something to get excited about, to devote my excess energies to, I found writing again. Putting together strings of words in the hope a collection of sentences glued together into paragraphs, scenes, and chapters might create a mood and foster a memory.

So my passion is to influence the heart, mind, or soul of a reader, those avid devourers of the written word. I’m not talking about the casual reader. There are those that read and those that are readers. We know who we are.

Don't Put a Comma Where a Period Belongs

Don’t put a comma where a period belongs. End of story. End of discussion. End of dream. All of the three previous sentences are fragments, pieces of a full story, complete discussion, or an abandoned dream.

When I write I use sentence fragments without apology. For clarity. For definition. For emphasis. Sometimes I’ll say the same thing three times, three different ways to get my point across—bam, bam, bam.

Sometimes I say three different things, all beginning with the same word. I know this is repetitive. I know this catches the eye. I know this stalls the story. But sometimes the use of fragmented repetition slows the pace enough for the reader to perceive the full impact of what the writer is trying to convey.

Why three times you ask? Hum, twice isn’t enough and four is overkill.

In some ways life needs a little…emphasis, repetition, clarity. Sometimes the flow of circumstance needs to be fragmented to slow the progression of events so one can enjoy all of life’s little moments. What if I had rushed through my life this way—I grew up, I got a degree, I got married, I got a job, I had two children, I finally got published, I retired from my day job, and I died. Yeah, this flows, but it’s sort of…boring. Not that the stages of life are boring, just the rushed through summing up of them into one boringly long sentence.

Now… I grew up. My younger years had both moments of joy and moments of heartache. I got a degree. Sometimes I wish I’d majored in something else, but accounting is a skill that earns me a few dollars so I can enjoy what I really want to do. I got married. He’s a wonderful man and adds so much to my life. I got a job. Thank God, that job has come and gone, and I’ve moved on to other employment! I had two children. My babies are the joy of my life. What more can I say about that? I’m a proud mother. I finally got published. Oh, now we’re talking about my passion. I retired from my day job. Well, I haven’t gotten there yet. And I’m not even going to address the last one, because I’m obviously still typing this blog post.

Life doesn’t need to be like a run on sentence either. Run on sentences drive me up a wall and I get so frustrated I want to throw the book (or the Nook) across the room and hit the cat, except I don’t have a cat, all I have is one fat, lazy dog that my husband thinks is the most intelligent canine that ever lived but that barks incessantly in the middle of storms and dribbles dog food slobber all over the laundry room floor and then I have to get a mop and clean the mess up because my husband doesn’t “see” the slime until I point it out to him and my children don’t want me fussing about the dog because they love that mutt…

Sorry, I digress. The previous sentence reads a little like Jonathan Safron Foer in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. No, I didn’t finish that book. I would have thrown it at the wall, except it was on my Nook. I like my Nook.

Just like a good read, life needs proper pacing. I think at the ripe old age of…old enough to have lived a little I have finally found my perfect rhythm. Nothing too choppy. Nothing too smushed together. Just right. And I don’t put commas where periods belong. Or vice versa.

Conversations With #MyMuse (Minecraft Edition) - 0005

Image in Public Domain as a faithful reproduction
of a work of art in the Public Domain.

My muse woke me up last night…Well, actually it was my husband’s snoring, but that’s beside the point. While I was attempting to lull myself back to lullaby land, my muse started jabbing an insistent finger into my psyche.

Muse: What are you doing? Don’t go back to sleep. There’s work to do.

Me: Wha-?

Muse: Okay, so you rejected my last idea, but I have a terrifical, splentastic, awesomelicious good one for you this time! Hey! Wake up.

Me: * heavy breathing *

Muse: So you know how you’ve been doing all that stuff on Minecraft lately—

Me: * head pops up * Minecraft?

Muse: Yep, thought that would get your attention. So…there’s this girl and this guy—

Me: * mutters * That plot’s been done to death. Leave me alone. I have to have my beauty sleep.

Muse: No, no. This is new. This is a different twist. This is—

Me: Muse! Shut up! I need sleep.

Muse: What? So you will have enough oomph to play more Minecraft?

Me: * grabs computer, which is conveniently by bed * Okay, what’s the idea? Give it to me so I can go back to sleep.

Muse: * blah, blah, blah * (Did you really think I was going to tell you my story idea? No!) * faint sounds of snoring *

Me: Muse? Muse? Oh well, I’m awake now. Might as well play Minecraft!

Note from tired author: Writers (or anyone else) never, ever begin a new world on Minecraft if you’ve got editing to do. Never, ever! Never! Today, (it’s 9:13 am CST) I will edit and write and edit and write… And that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Anybody else out there addicted to Minecraft? Please tell me I’m not alone…pretty please.