keeping sanity

What does an artist expect to get from their effort? And I don't mean just in terms of money--

on the sanity of artists

this link was in The Dish; so I hope it still works now that Sullivan has ended that blog

Although I have been involved in painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture, I am personally looking at this in regards writing-- specifically mine. I don't do the craft type, where I look at what has sold well and try to put my spin on it-- basically formula writing. My stories, as is the case with most writers, come from within. If my plot structures fit any formula, it's Joseph Campbell's the hero's journey-- which is pretty much about the journey of life.

For me, writing that kind of story is pure pleasure-- no problems with sanity. I love setting up a situation, creating characters, getting a feel for who they are, and then taking them through various experiences to a meaningful climax-- as I see it. Some say that for them, writing is like pulling teeth or sweating blood. It's not for me. I love diving into these fictional characters' lives, becoming involved in their problems, helping them work it all out, and forgetting for a little while my own...

Lost a pregnant ewe who got over onto her back and was unable to get up. Sheep die in an hour or two if they get onto their backs that way. At a certain point, they cannot get up without help. Twelve lambs lost this year with thirty-seven on the ground but will we lose some of them? Two or three ewes left to lamb.

Found a great buyer for last year's lambs. I hate to see them go, but this is as good a set up as possible. We need to sell some cattle; will that buyer come through as he promised? Pineapple Express is giving us the rain we need-- is the creek rising too much? How come my smart phone is eating up its battery in a few hours? Timeout to get passport photos renewed and sent off before ours expires. Is that crown really feeling okay now? Definitely do not turn on the news, it's too depressing; and on it goes. 


All that can be put aside when I am writing a story in an organic way. My stories grow out of their situation and the characters. When writing a rough draft, I am constantly thinking of these people and what comes next. The story swallows my world for the time it takes to get that rough draft. With writing stories this way, I have control and I know it will all work out, which is a lot more than I can say for what happens in the real world.

Marketing books, on the other hand, brings me right back to myself with a thud. I have very little real control, and I constantly have to make choices. If I venture into social media, it's not my characters, it's me. How do I present my books? Do I present them? What should I share of my world? And on it goes.

Amazon is the one creating some of my current angst. Recently I read a link which claimed if you don't put your book in Amazon Select/KU, it will drop into Amazon's black hole. And I know from experience how Amazon helps that happen. In January, I had a book sell seven copies in a short time. Do you know what it did for its rankings? It might as well have sold one. In December a book sold a couple of copies that didn't impact its rankings at all. I emailed Amazon on that one trying to figure out if they had made a mistake. They had not. It's all about their mysterious algorithms dontchaknow.

To be in Select or KU, where Amazon might help my books show up, I would need to pull them from B&N, Kobo, etc. Amazon is as much trying to sell books as they are trying to push out the competition. Yes, it's the way of business, but I don't like it. Staying out of KU may have meant some of my books, one is coming to my mind, suffer. That can't be good either. The other sites do sell, but very few. You can see how my thinking is going round in circles. Which good matters most?

My publisher wants me to give KU a try and because he's my partner in this (not to mention husband), I am going along with it for a book that has been out there for quite awhile and has never sold well-- lately nada. 

Sky Daughter has been a hard book to promote whether in blurbs or covers. Although I think people would like it if they gave it a try, who am I to know since my taste in romance reading isn't the same as the best sellers. 

So we made the tough decision. It has been pulled from the other sites to be in Select and KU. I have a month to see how it goes and to decide if KU should be how I bring out the first of the Oregon historicals. If I do that with the first one, I think I'd leave it there the required three months, until the second comes out. Pull it, put it into the other sites while the second one goes to KU/Select. That would get repeated until all four of are out. But what if KU actually gets rentals or sales for Sky Daughter and that first Oregon historical? hmmmmmm 

I hate having to think about this... It's trading off what is best for my books with what might be best for selling books in general. Will it be best for even my books? I am going in circles.

Keeping sanity while marketing is not an easy thing-- if the writer cares about getting sales and reviews (getting reviews is even tougher where I am not operating within a clique). I've been reading lately about something called street teams where writers ask some fans to join together to help their books be seen. As part of that, there is a private site, and team members get some freebies as well as closer access to the writer. 

Previously, I had never even heard of the term. Looking it up, I learned that street teams began in the '90s to sell music. It is a buzz word where some think it's the way to go and others feel it doesn't really gain much. 

Do I need a street team? Do I even have the potential to have one? Street teams and beta readers are why some books come out and instantly have fifteen reviews-- in case you didn't know. 

When I see a book like Rose's Gift, which had pretty decent sales (especially for my books recently-- helped along by support from other writers), but has gotten zero reviews, I see why some like having such groups to be sure that does not happen to their books. It's not dishonest because most of those in a street team, maybe all, genuinely like that writer's work.

All these questions, which go in circles, are why for years, I had continued to write new Oregon historicals but held off on publishing. I now feel I should let them go out, give them a chance. It is also possible that to give them their best shot will require them being in the KU, at least to begin. Maybe :). Does it also require a street team? *sigh*

from where it comes

Reading one of the places I check now and again, they had put up some western music which led to my remembering my own childhood and how much both western music and movies influenced how I think and who I am today. To make sure I am understood, when I say western music, it's not country-western I am talking about. It is something like this.

I have that 78 RPM of that song as well as my real favorite on the flip side-- Single Saddle. My gosh, I can still sing Single Saddle and haven't heard it for years and years. It was music like that as well as by the Sons of the Pioneers that were what likely formed my values and underlay what I write today.

 I am not embarrassed by it either. Were those westerns realistic? Not usually. Did they always have the good guy triumph over the bad guy? Generally. Some hold up well to today and can still be watched. Some not so much.

Here's the thing-- entertainment, all of it, has a set of values. Whatever we put into our minds feeds something in us. That's not debatable. The question is what will it be? What I got back then fed dreams of romance, adventure, doing right, importance of being strong. My dreams didn't get in the way of my going to college, meeting the right sort of man, having children and living as I do today. Some of my dreams were fulfilled-- others I live out through my characters. Not such a bad deal :)

Following a star

With this goal I have of doing some talking videos to discuss my books, it seemed apropos, after writing about Invictus, to discuss one of my books where the woman had to learn to do this-- take charge of her life.

Marla is a woman who one might think already had everything anyone could want. She had a successful, ambitious career, but that was hiding the emotional fears she had let dictate too much of her life. She needs an evening star to guide her. She, as with us, cannot let it be a person. We have to find direction within ourselves but how do we do that? This book explores one possible path.

Sky Daughter discussion

Working on learning to use the webcam or a camera to discuss the energy behind a book has been an experience to say the least. What I am working to get across is not the plot, but more why the book was written. There always is something that goes beyond they fell in love.

So with Sky Daughter, a contemporary romance, I discussed a few of those energies in this video.

Solitude and the Writer

Lately my creative life appears to be revolving around the camera in one way or another. I have put off starting the next book. This was not so much because I don't know where it's going-- as it's evolving in my head quite nicely. It's more because I am not sure I have a big enough block of time to do more than get the first chapter laid out. Sometimes that works and sometimes it creates a mixed energy that can be avoided by just waiting until the time is here.

Long time friends were here on Sunday. Diane Widler Wenzel was beginning the largest plein air painting she's done in ten years. She took on even more of a challenge when she chose to videotape the process to share how such a painting evolves. She set herself up down by the creek.

The reflections in a summer creek are fantastic with so many colorful places where you can hardly tell the reflection from reality. A polarizing lens helps to capture it with the camera. I am thinking sometime I will put together a slideshow of the reflections I've taken through the years and seasons.

As Diane got her painting laid out. I relaxed out in the new yard area and contemplated life and art. No, I didn't. I petted the cats and more or less took a day off-- other than fixing everyone a lunch-- as the guys worked on a (broken-- don't ask how that happened) ATV, cleaned out a barn, and stuffed a wool bag. Me, I just enjoyed listening to the birds and staring up at a beautiful blue sky as some clouds floated past. That cats approved my choice.

On the week-end, I bought a new Logitech webcam. It has wide angle as an option. They all take adjusting the color, contrast, gain, exposure, etc. as light changes. I am hopeful with it I will get less obvious pixilation and sharper images as I continue to learn to talk about my books, the writing process, or whatever comes to mind. It's still a challenge but rewarding too.

Besides discussing each of my books, I also have recorded a few on topics like sexuality in the novel, techniques in doing a video, video potential as another communication medium, etc etc.

My weeks ahead will grow increasing chaotic which may break my posting rhythm here and on Rainy Day Thoughts. We are loading the first of our winter supply of hay. Farm Boss does that work as when bales weigh 800 lbs., I sure am not going to be out helping stack them. It is purely a job for a tractor.

The busy times over the next few weeks will all be enjoyable with more grandkid time as well as Farm Boss's 70th birthday. I am enjoying the season, the family activities that are sandwiched into the ranch jobs, and the wonders of living on a creek during the summer. It's wonderful right now as a deer wandered through and Farm Boss scared the fox as he surprised him hunting by the old harness shed.

I made this video to play with the webcam and discuss something I think  does matter to the writer. Thinking more on those kinds of topics is on my mind--

A video as something more

Now I cannot begin to say that I am going to go all arty on creating videos that promote writing. Although my husband/publisher/Farm Boss might if he finds it a rewarding hobby with the few hours he has available for such. I won't be holding my breath on that.

What I began to see was the potential for videos beyond selling my own books. They can promote an idea or emotional goal which is what I always want from my books but a video can do that apart from them. Too cool.

What began to inspire me for where this can go was watching the following video about Southern artists in particular based around Charleston, South Carolina. They are a mix of poets and writers as they discuss the place they live, how it's different from other places, and how it impacts their work. It was so cool and I hope that readers here will take the time to watch it. It was very inspiring regarding creativity and place.

Writers of Charleston

What I was thinking was about the potential for taking a geographic area like say where I live that does have its unique imprint. Let the land around you, the historic energy, the people who are unique to this place, let it all impact what you create. I think I do this with my books based always in places I know and love, places I have spent a lot of time. I have not, however, sat down and put that process to words as well as I felt that video did for Charleston and that part of the South.

Through the years, particularly when we belonged to Netflix, I really enjoyed documentaries but most were the length of a movie. The link above was more a tidbit, a taste to get people probably to appreciate their area but also to think more about their own and what it contributes to their work.

Marketing again... and again and again

Probably I write 1/3 of the posts here on the subject of marketing/promoting. It's much on my mind, especially right now, as I try to decide when/whether to bring out the first of what will be six historical romances. As I more or less map out the sixth (still unwritten) in my head, I am also thinking how the heck do I get any of them seen by readers who are most likely to enjoy them? The truth is you can write a masterpiece (not saying mine are) but if you can't get them seen, they go nowhere. It's like Cinderella sitting at home waiting for a prince if she does nothing to get herself seen.

When I got into ePublishing in December 2011, I knew marketing would be the problem. For awhile I thought I had a solution with Amazon's Select program where you give away books as a way to introduce yourself to new readers. I would say that spectacularly didn't work. While I gave away thousands of books, the sales didn't do enough to keep me visible on Amazon's product lists. I had readers say they'd just wait for the book to be free as that's all they were taking. Free books didn't lead to many reviews; so I got out of Select and won't put the historicals into that system.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you've read my whining regarding hating marketing something most creative people do not want to be doing. But, if you do your own work, paint, sculpt, photograph, write, create music, and want your work seen, you know about the problems of marketing/promoting.

To get something seen in the world is a business and has its own skill set. Because of this issue and my own uncertainty on how to resolve it, I've put off releasing the first historical since it was readied last September. I've thought through various options for how to proceed while I have written more books.

One possibility is I could submit the historicals to publishing houses. I never have. At this point, I don't want to go through a publishing house even if I could get the books accepted. There are a couple of reasons. The main one is I don't see how they can do a better job marketing. They could pay for ads. They do for the big writers but would they a first timer? Unlikely. Their reputation might sell books, but the ones most likely for that (Harlequin) wouldn't accept manuscripts to even consider the length of mine. I am not willing to chop the meat out of mine to fit their length requirements.

If I found a publishing house that did accept a book, they would also put it onto eBooks, and I'd get a fraction of what I get by being my own publisher. The books might make it into bookstores for awhile, but they move through there pretty fast from what I've seen. Yes, I'd get the prestige of having a book accepted but what do I care about that?

So I am back to the problem-- how do I put out my first historical and get it seen before it falls into Amazon's black hole?

Some writers (likewise painters, sculptors, etc.) enter contests. That are a few pluses if the contest is by a respected group as you might also get a bit of a critique even if the work didn't win. On the other hand, who follows the results of these contests except those in the groups? A win there is something that would look good on a webpage if the webpage reaches very many people. How much faith a reader puts into buying a book based on having won a contest would probably be proportionate to what they felt about the group putting it on. Was the contest won solely by ability or by popularity, i.e. networking? I have no idea as I've never entered one nor have I ever bought a book based on its having won a contest. If the contest had as a reward a certain amount of free promotion then that might be of value, but I don't think most offer more than the initial release of the results-- and release to whom?

Reviews are another way some indie writers go. They submit the books to various online sites that do reviews. I might give that a try, but the question I have there is similar to the contests-- how many people read or buy books based on those reviews? Who even knows they exist? Are they mostly read by other writers and wantabe writers? Now that is a market but not really large enough to keep a book afloat.

Personally more troublesome is I have read the reviews, looked at the books and don't see my books fitting well into those getting the highest ratings. Clearly I am on a different wavelength-- not better (nor do I think worse), just different.

It might come back to this thing I read earlier-- romance readers and reviewers are looking for new versions of what's already been out there. They want good writing, exciting characters, different settings, but basically similar plots. Although I am writing historical romances, I don't see them as having the plots that fit the existing niches. Still I might give it a try although I am still arguing with myself over it.

There are millions of readers online and buying eBooks, but they more likely to find their books by reading reviews in newspapers or by word of mouth. An indie book is not getting a review by a newspaper; so that leaves word of mouth. There are indie writers who have found ways and gotten seen by the mainstream. I think the main thing is to have the work showing up a lot of places that aren't limited to writers because much as I enjoy talking to other writers, seeing their work, I am not their main market either. I've written about a few ideas I've come across. Another is in the next blog.

It's rhododendron time in the sun in my part of the Pacific Northwest. 

covers that tell the story

One of the books I put out I dearly love but always knew it'd be a hard sell to readers as it is a romance that covers a subject that sometimes is covered in romances but never quite like mine. When I first begin writing I thought being original would be good... guess what-- it's not. Readers want the plots they have read and liked over the years. They want it a thousand times but with different characters. If you don't believe me, check out the popular romances. So to be original which might seem would be good-- is not. Anyway it doesn't matter because as I've said a zillion times-- we write what we can write and the stories that come to us. 

Moon Dust is the story of a marriage on the brink of divorce. Its hero is a high school principal confronting what is very typically a problem in schools today and sadly was when I wrote the story over 15 years ago. It also deals with the ramifications of childhood abuse on adults. That isn't so unusual when it's a heroine but in this book's case, it's the hero.

I don't know why people have wrongly tended to think sexual abuse of males as children isn't as serious a crime. I think that is changing. Sexual abuse of children is a crime of control and it's not less disastrous for the impact on an adult when it's a male than a female. I did a lot of research for the book, reading case histories, coming to understand what might be the telltale clues.

Then I set my story into the problems this high school principal was facing with violence in the schools. It's kind of a difficult subject every direction but I think I handled it tastefully and believably while keeping the story romantic. Still it's not surprising it's been a hard go for readers.

What I needed was a cover that depicted the story in a way that at least leads potential readers to look at the blurb and read the sample. It's what a cover is all about-- like fishing bait on a hook. The bait interests them and hopefully the hook is the blurb and free sample of the first chapter. Cover though comes first and I've tried a lot of them. The current cover is back from an earlier one but with a new background and font. Will it help sales? whoever knows with eBooks. You really never know what leads to them or means you get none.

I'd like to see this book do well not only because of the healing information that I think is within for individuals but for our culture; but also because it then leads into reading Second Chance which I think is also a book that has more than a romance as a reason to read the story.

So, once again new cover and maybe... just maybe... it'll be the last one as this really is Susan's story as she wrestles with first the loss of her marriage and leaving a man she still loves and then the truth of why he has been as he is. Finally as she has to fight to save him.

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Ghost of the forest

One of the things that always brings me joy is when I come across the ghosts of the forest, our Oregon Coast Range Roosevelt elk, in a herd grazing and interacting with each other. When I am in areas I know they could be, I watch for them, can often tell where they have been (they cut a wide track) but to catch a herd grazing as we did last week, that's not so common an experience for me that it has yet to get old.

We have elk at the back of our land here. Regularly they tear down a fence as they have a route they are familiar with and if a fence is in their way, well it's not like they don't know how to fix that.  Back there, I've watched them gambol far below me, jumping in and out of pools of water, but only when I didn't have a camera with me.

 there are three visible in this photo if you enlarge and look carefully

The only time we have gotten photos of them on our land is when we left a wildlife camera back on one of their trails. After they saw the camera, it looks as though they licked the lens as all the rest of the images were very fuzzy and we have one with a nose right in front of the camera. Too smart by half.

I had a friend in college who had grown up in the Coast Range and told of being treed by the elk. They are big animals and definitely do have the ability to hurt a person if they were so inclined. Generally they run.

The photos below were taken March 13th of a good sized herd we lucked upon while in Cascade Head Preserve down on the Coast. These animals are not fenced; they are wild. This was in a mountain and riparian zone being restored to a natural wetland, much of which is now owned by Nature Conservancy, not that this elk herd probably ever paid much attention to that. This is their home range, and they know who the intruders are. This is the season where the bulls will have dropped their antlers; so you can only tell the males by body type-- that is unless you get a lot closer than we were (all photos taken with telephoto).

I didn't count but I think this time we took over fifty photos of what looked like fifty elk. Someday I should put my elk photos into an album so that other elk lovers can enjoy them all. Someday is a long way off as I have work to do from being gone.

Oregon Coast

In the midst of a lot of research and writing a manuscript that will deal with Oregon after the Civil War, we had made reservations to share a beach house with long time friends. We have rented this particular place four times with them. 

It's hard to take a break when creative work is going well, but it was a lot of fun, lots of laughter, as well as a creative time with good conversations and food. The house we stay in sits above a private cove with a rich ocean ecosystem. Because of the rocks, the waves are always changing direction and action. Just being there recharges creative juices-- even though the book I am writing has nothing to do with the ocean.

We had some wonderful discussions on creativity, art and process, as my friend is a painter where I have had great interest in what she does and she's very encouraging of my writing. Our husbands met in college when working in a chemistry lab as freshmen. My husband I met as sophomores and I met her after she began dating him. We were in Arizona for a year with them while our husbands worked to get Master's Degrees at the UofA. After we moved back north, she and I exchanged letters as our families grew. then they moved closer and now she and I get together most frequently through the Internet.

The only possible thing I could wish for with the beach house is that it had a desk as even though I brought my laptop, when she was painting, I just watched the ocean, chatted and tried to get the perfect wave photo. If I was going to spend a week at the Coast, a desk would be on my have-to-have list.

Following are photos from along the Central Oregon Coast March 10-12th.

I have to say it's hard now to get back into my regular writing routine. My mind is flying off too many directions but I'll get it together-- soon... I hope. In the meantime, I'll try to write a few blogs ahead of time for when the story begins to flow again.

Two I loved and not in a series

As long as I'm writing about someone else's romances, I thought of two more illustrating how very different romances can be for what's in them. These happen to also be two that I know exactly where I was when I bought them and although I have loved them, I don't own more by either author. Their other books just didn't register with me; but because of loving these two, I definitely did try their others.

For me, sex isn't a big thing in a book to have it or not have it. I do find that if the sex becomes too dominant, I get bored. I am not easily offended though and a little sex on the dark side doesn't horrify me unless it's glorifying rape. That is a total no-go. If that hero forces the heroine when she says no but she later likes it, I will toss that book into the garbage if I bought it. Abuse isn't sexy to me.

So two more book reviews of romances that I have loved for very different reasons-- one with a lot of sex and one with the implications of it but no descriptions. One written by a woman and the other by a man. Neither one currently on Kindle.

Years ago I read a book again in the Lake Oswego library that I loved. I had looked for it in various used bookstores through the years but never found it. Finally I decided I'd give an Internet search a try. Lo and behold there a used copy was and I ordered it. 

Vardy by John Harris is an historical novel that has a strong romantic relationship at the center of it. Set in France and beginning in 1870, it is the story of one of Napoleon's military leaders. Colonel Max Cary de Lily is small, ugly, missing one eye, scarred, but also full of the energy of war heroes or really any hero. Vardy is a young woman who at first is drawn to his power but then falls in love as she is pulled through the adventures of a volatile time in France's history. This story is well set in its time period but never loses the power of the two main characters. Vardy's growth as a character is part of its appeal. Even though these two people are lovers, there is only the suggestion of sex, no descriptions.

When it arrived, in beautiful condition I might add, I was delighted to find it was as pleasing to me as a novel as it had been when I first read it nearly 40 years earlier. It is also very different than the second book I will review.

In 1991, we had made a hurried drive across the United States right after our daughter's wedding. Farm Boss was involved in a project which involved using for the first time a laser. It was being built in Massachusetts and the company was in danger of going under before they could get the laser shipped. He needed to get the glitches out. It wasn't going to be something that could be done in a few days. I suggested we go back together, drive and spend the month it would take (company covered costs). It took us just 4 1/2 days to drive there from Oregon. It gave me a lot of time alone with one of those weeks at Rockport and two in Concord. It was a memorable trip on many levels as I could wander where I chose during the day and there were many delicious historical sites from which to choose.

It was while in Concord in a small bookstore that I found Shadow Play by Kathleen Sutcliffe. I took it back to the lovely old hotel where we were staying and didn't quit reading until I had finished it (it not being a short book). It remains one of my favorite romances; but when I went looking to see if it's still available, the professional review of it was scathing although other readers wrote reviews expressing the same love I felt for this story. Goes to show.

Shadow Play is a romantic fairy tale loosely set in an historic period but that's not the crux of the story. It has all the ingredients I love in a romance starting with a great hero and a heroine worthy of him. The hero has been through a lot of bad times but emerged as someone considered almost a god in the Amazon. Some of that is good marketing on his part but he's more the hero than he knows. The aristocratic heroine is out of his league or so they both think until enough time together changes their minds with lots of adventures, one right after another as they travel up the Amazon into forbidden territory. There is a villain worthy of any romance as he is beautiful physically, dangerous and presents a risk to the hero until the climax. So troubled past, dangerous present, uncertain future, and some lusty sex.

It always amazes me how when I love a book it doesn't mean I will like anything else by the same author. As authors we always hope we are creating books, whether in a series or not, that will make others want to read all we wrote. While it is true that when I find a book I love, I will check out others by that author, it doesn't automatically mean I'll even like them let alone love.

Also all the talk, of paper publishing having more value than eBooks, I think is disproven by how quickly books disappear from the shelves and even the ability to buy those put out by the big publishing houses. Some of these oldies are having their authors retrieve the rights and put them out as an ePub. I am all for that because any book I have loved I will want to read again.

Imbolc

Yes, once again we have gotten here, not just past the hump of Winter Solstice but to the Celtic celebration, Imbolc, which I have written about in another blog many many times but perhaps not with the emphasis on what it means for creativity. 

Imbolc (ewe's milk) is when we get our first lambs as it is the traditional time for lambing in the Celtic lands from where the celebration originated. Our ewes are heavily pregnant in the days before February 2. We wait for those first little sounds from the newborns, the crooning of the mothers. We hope to not hear the lost sound of a lamb where no mother is speaking back to it.

See how heavily laden she is-- so ready with the weight of that belly as it has dropped-- photo taken January 31, 2013

Besides longer days and new growth and life, this is a time of creativity in a spiritual and an inner sense or so the sages say. We can dream dreams with these long nights but the gradually increasing day's length means activity is about to burst forth. We can think about what is within and find ways to bring it out. Suggestions for Imbolc are reciting poetry, lighting candles, starting new plants, or gathering in circles.

I saw an interesting topic in the MOA (Meet Our Author's) at Amazon. Well the topic wasn't but something that arose within was.-- how long does it take to write a book? Some asserted that if it did not take a year, then the book wasn't worthy. Others felt that someone who turns out say five books in a year has to be doing inferior work. One suggested that if a person worked a 12-hour day, there was no way there would be time for writing a novel. I put a brief comment there but decided I'd prefer to expand on it  here as it is part of creativity and bringing forth our own light.

Basically I can address this from where it comes to my own writing and what I have heard others say about theirs. Yes, some take years to write their books while others, with equal skill, can bring out several books in a year. Some people have written only one masterpiece and it was finally recognized as such when they were in old age-- thinking Helen Hooeven Santmyer's-- And the Ladies of the Club or Norman Maclean's, The River Runs Through It. Not that it took them a lifetime to write the one great book, but it took that long to have it recognized.

There are traditionally published authors who write under several names to avoid having readers think they are writing too much. They might write under different genres for the same reason or because it's fun to vary what they do.

So my opinion is that if someone has an idea for a book and knows its trajectory, they can easily write 1000 words a night if nighttime is all they have for their own fiction. The catch, of course, is to have that initial idea. Sometimes long hours at work drains the creative juices. It's not the time to write that is lacking. It's the time to work out the fictional plot and characters.

If they wrote 1000 words a day, varying it a bit, they would have their rough draft in a couple of months. Then would come editing, editing and re-editing. If they wish to go the traditional route, they then have to write a query letter, synopsis and maybe outline to interest a publishing house or agent in their work. I won't say it's easy to do this when working long hours but it's not impossible-- if the person has that initial idea and knows where it's going.

As for me, I often go days writing nothing where it might seem nothing is happening on my book idea, but it's going through a lot of phases in my head or in notes. When I am writing, I can easily do 5000 words in a day. But then I need to reread and think about where that got the story and whether it worked. It was not hard at all with A Montana Christmas to write so fast because I knew those characters and where the story was a novella, it didn't have the complexity of a full length novel.

My current work in progress has taken characters I knew vaguely from a prior story but had to get to know them a LOT better. I began writing their interactions, what they were doing, who else they were involved with, when did they laugh, when did they cry, and as that unfolded, so did more and more of the story. Although i have the time to spend a day writing, I don't have that every day. 

On those days I am busy elsewhere, i think about these characters and where they might be at the time. I think about them most especially right before bed as I consider what they did that day and where might that lead them. It's easy in such a time of intense writing to lose track of my own life if I don't make the effort to stay in touch with 'me.'

A lot of what I write has been fully formulated before I sit at the keyboard but I am open to changing something if the next step reveals what came before was a mistake. It's so easy with the computer versus the days when all of what I wrote was done on a typewriter, one of those lovely old black ones where you had to strike the keys hard. If I wanted to readjust things with it, it required cutting apart paragraphs and taping them into new places. Love the modern world where it comes to tools that help creating happen faster and easier.

If you are wanting to write fiction but haven't yet done it, think of the story that is in your head, the nuances, the additional parts you might be able to flesh out, use the darkness of these long nights for that but then start writing. A thousand words a day is not a bad goal as it's pretty easy to do. Even if your ideas don't seem like much, write them down-- one thing often leads to another. You can assess its value later. The main thing for those who want to write is-- write.

Fame or recognition, sales or popularity, that might never come. They aren't what make you a writer. Some might think it's all about the money or being a great artist in your writing abilities. Nope. It's that you write. Now being an author, having that recognition, that might take something else but to be a writer only means one thing-- you are one who writes.

May Imbolc give you some of that light and glow to get your own work going.







.

escape to another world

Currently I am very involved in writing. My goal is a story the length of my other historicals which range from 120,000 to 140,000 words. For a writer like myself, never published in paper, I couldn't even get an agent to read a manuscript that length. Publishing houses draw a limit at 100,000 for their slush piles (uninvited queries and manuscripts) and prefer less. But this is generally what I feel is needed to fully tell such a story. Once I get into a book like this, I want to stay with these people and fully develop the plots with all the nuances possible. This one follows a prior Arizona story by about two years. The hero and heroine began as secondary characters that I realized would merit their own story.

Old Tucson

The challenge, when you create a new book, is choosing which characters go along with the main protagonists. For a book this length, you need good secondary characters and some secondary plot-lines. You have this historic period you are setting them into-- which might be your own but in my case is southern Arizona and beginning in the winter of 1886. 

Whether today or yesterday, you find out what their community would be like. What were the political issues back then and did they impact their lives? Who do they talk over their problems assuming they are the type to reveal their thinking to anyone? Who will present barriers to their life? What challenges do they choose and which ones are forced upon them by someone else or nature? What are the fun things that just happen, which you didn't plan, but come out of these characters' interactions?

As you are writing, at a certain point, this world will seem as real as your own. It is as though you have reached into a pool and pulled from it characters that at a certain point become fully fleshed. What began as an idea has become a world as real as your own and it's where the magic lies in writing. It is both the challenge and the joy of it.

I particularly recommend such activity in a time such as ours where when you read what is going on in the world, you want to curl up in a hole. I am a believer in being informed and involved in the political choices being attempted or done. Our awareness is critical if we want to remain anything resembling a democracy.

For those who don't know, we are a Republic. We elect leaders to run our system. We vote for them based on believing they follow our own goals and priorities. These are the ones we expect to fight to make this country a good one for us all. When we lose the ability to elect leaders like that, this system is doomed because a lot of what happens once it gets to those leaders too often isn't democracy at all.

This can be very depressing to think about-- whichever political side you take. My opinion is we need to pay attention, be aware of what is happening because what they do does impact our real world. How can we expect to keep a nation that runs on the will of the people if the people can be so easily dissuaded from paying attention? But, the key to a personal, satisfying life, is to do what we can and then let it go. It's a balancing act because how to let it go is the problem.

It is in times like this where I heartily recommend writing fiction whether that be full length manuscripts, novellas, novelettes or short stories. Create your own world and if that's sci fi, fantasy, romance, adventure, pop or great lit, it doesn't matter. 

The ticket is finding somewhere fascinating for you to go with your characters and escaping for awhile from the world in which we actually live. Give your fantasy world some interesting prime characters which might be male and female, mother and offspring, friends, enemies, whatever intrigues you. Then start writing the events as they unfold. Consider if that worked. If it didn't, start over. Whatever the case, you want your mind caught up in their world and not your own as a way to get a break.

Sabino Canyon and another way to escape for awhile-- nature

Energy of the buffalo

After I wrote a blog on the topic of how we get our own energy, I got fascinated with how many photos I really have taken of buffalo herds. The answer was over 150 from '08 and '10. To me the fascination is their size, relationships to each other, how they move across a valley like a sea, they way they seem beyond anything more than themselves. Buffalo do isolate some of the males due to fights for supremacy, and you will see that lone buffalo off by himself.

They are part of the history of our country, and it's not hard to see why they are not roaming free everywhere today. You try telling a buffalo that an ordinary fence is supposed to limit their territory. People can sometimes walk up close to them (which I sure wouldn't do) and not get gored; but the next person trying it will be tossed in the air and only survive when they are lucky.

In Yellowstone they sometimes walk down the road, blocking all vehicles for however long they decide that's their road. There are times we've driven into the park, had gridlock happen with no clue what was delaying everybody until we finally saw a lone buffalo grazing alongside the road. Usually that happens on the road in from West Yellowstone before visitors realize buffalo are not unusual in the park.

The herds that run free in Yellowstone have their own problems of survival although it's not generally predators until they get old. Still I felt that predators are part of their story and added a couple of photos of wolves (at a distance as right now we don't have a telephoto capable of bringing them closer) and grizzlies (closer as we got lucky our last trip-- and I might add telephoto makes them look closer than they were).

The music I chose was from JewelBeat and seemed apropos given how important buffalo were to the mighty Plains tribes.

Leaving our stories behind

When we write a story, draw a picture, create a sculpture, we are creating something for others, hopefully leaving something of ourselves, of how we see the world. It will be our interpretation of an event, a spiritual truth, life, nature, the cosmos, but whether the 'others' will see what we intended, who ever knows.

When in Tucson, I always like to visit petroglyph sites. Well actually I like them anywhere I go but here there are quite a few with easy access. One on my someday list is harder to reach, much longer hike, and I wasn't in shape this trip nor had I gotten the necessary permits ahead of time-- someday though.

Because I am starting on another Arizona historical novel, one or more of these sites will be worked into the story, and I might use one of the photos in its trailer. They are a good example of how when you are writing something, being there can add to your ideas for the events. This western always was planned to have some mystical elements, Yaqui and others, and so these sites work into that theme.

Regardless of whether I am writing or not, visiting such places is always important to me. To be there always feels infused with energy which maybe explains why they are where they are... or maybe these are just the places the elements didn't wipe out the etchings into the rocks.

As for their original story or purpose, it's all guesswork. They could be stories of life, sites for sacred work, but whatever the artist intended, visiting them always seems good to me and I've had that pleasure on many sites across the West.

The following petroglyphs are all Hohokam, probably over a thousand years old and in the Tucson area-- Signal Hill, Painted Rock, and Honeybee Canyon.

our time in Tucson

Because our main purpose to be at our Tucson, Arizona home at this time was handiwork, getting it ready for the first renters of the new year who will be here beginning the 31st, the time has been a mix of getting things done, sprucing up, along with getting the kinds of photos I can use for future trailers and blogs.

My physical writing was mostly done in the first week with now it being more about plot ideas in my head as I work out characters and actions before I start into a heavy writing schedule again.

For me, Arizona has been an incredibly rich experience this time with a lot of necessary activity and some very pleasurable. A few days were all practical like when the septic tank was pumped one morning with a new dishwasher being delivered that afternoon-- and the prep for both those activities ahead of time. Then there were days rich in artistic pleasures as when we visited Old Tucson, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and two petroglyph sites on the Winter Solstice.

This was my first time back to Old Tucson since it burned (arson) and had been rebuilt. I was in awe frankly of all the great photo ops for someone who wanted Old West type background material. Since they rebuilt it for movie work as well as tourists, it has all kinds of wonderful hidden niches that made for great photos. It doesn't have the same ambiance as when we knew John Wayne had walked the streets and one time we saw Clint Eastwood there with his family (or his look alike as we didn't stare or ask). I have so many fun photos from those years, but this new version is probably better for the photographer who wants something they can use more practically than ambiance.

On the 30th, we will begin heading for Oregon-- give or take a day based on weather forecasts. We are hoping the snow that has been hitting mountains between us and our little ranch will be off the highways. Due to the winter storms our route north will be through California which means more driving pressure but less icy conditions-- although it has its share of places it can happen no matter which way we go.

Winter has arrived and with it a lot of traveling attention must be paid to weather forecasts and highway conditions. We've gone north when it took chains to get over the Siskiyous or the roads were closed. One year we saw how bad the conditions were getting, pulled into a restaurant, heard the police saying they were shutting it down totally and got motel reservations at Shasta just in time which was a lot more pleasant than the alternative of a school-- and with the cats now, how would that work? Either of them? We'll watch for conditions and not get anything close to that happening.

Of course, here in Arizona, it hardly seems like winter other than the great lighting conditions, sunsets, decorations and music in stores when we are forced to visit one (seldom as possible).

Frankly, as reluctant as I was to come, I will be equally reluctant to leave. I have two homes I love very much. One has a lot more responsibility attached to being there and the other is too far from family. I have always said I have a divided heart and why couldn't I find my perfect place closer than 1200 miles from my other perfect place?

For those who have never seen our home in Tucson, I had made a video for its VRBO listing and it's on YouTube.

potpourri

Although, as a blog writer, I pretty nearly always write ahead of where I am, I thought I'd throw in a few stream of consciousness entries just because I can. Since my life is a mix of this and that, stream of consciousness comes out for me like potpourri without a big emphasis on one thing mattering more than another.

Wrestling with marketing is still one of my big issues as I have definitely decided not to put out the historical romances until I have a better idea of how to build a platform that gets them seen.

It's rather like when we sell lambs or steers. We cannot keep going with ranching until we find somewhere to sell the offspring. It's not the fun part of ranching but it is a necessity.

Last week 22 of our lambs went out to one buyer and it looks like a good fit for the buyer and us. They will be butchered as needed and sold to a specialty market. I hate selling lambs or steers because we give them this good life right up until that day comes. Now if we can kill on the place, which we manage more easily with the beef, I am happiest. They live good until the end. and the end is quick and merciful. At any rate, it's all part of ranch life.

The heavy rains have interfered with a lot of our plans. There is talk that this winter might be like this-- lots of gray, rainy days. It seems we are in a have and have not situation right now. It's dry and arid or it's tropical. This is kind of tropical as the air temp is pretty warm. Warm enough that at night we sleep with the french doors open.

I had a fascinating dream which I still have been trying to interpret but this is a time when my dreams seem not only intense but I retain parts of them when I wake. In this one I was like me but a slimmer and probably younger me. When someone came around I could either show them this me-- more like the one i used to be-- or a nude very muscular man who was also me. When I wondered in the dream why I was slimmer, the answer was dipping in the water. (While that might sound good, it's not as what kind of water could do that-- microbes? worms? acidic? No water that made you slim sounds safe to me. Is that too practical?)

What I think the dream likely represented-- the male/female part-- was the yin and yang of us, how we are both masculine and feminine. We have parts of us we choose to show to different people at different times. Very few see all of us.

But it might've been also because I write and as we write characters, we do go inside their heads. They then show various aspects of themselves to those they come across and the writer decides which part. When I am writing, I write both the beautiful woman and the handsome man. I am both of them in some ways and have to draw their characters out of myself. It might make me more aware of this in myself. Anyway it's one thought.

Somehow I threw out a muscle alongside my hip and the end result of that has been some pain, some trying to figure out how to restrengthen everything. Physically it makes me more aware of my age than I often am. It also reminds me I have not been as religious in exercising as I should be. Dare I mention also that physically I want to eat all the time, snack on this or that. It's as though it's a compensation for that weather outside, for my own frustration over not figuring out the marketing of books, over the hip not feeling right, and over the realities of ranch life. I need to get some healthier snacks around here as the ones I am choosing right now are anything but. Like I really needed more weight.... not.

Otherwise this is a bit of a waiting time for us as we have plans but weather is interfering. I certainly won't put up photos of outside my door right now as it's dreary out there but these are a few I drew out of my files.