Breaking the silence (on the blog, that is.)

Today's Mood: upbeat. Today's Music: Nickelback. Today's Writing: IFFY. Today's Quote:

"If you aren't prepared to put your writing first, you aren't really a writer." - Rita Mae Brown (Harsh!)

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Whoop! Whoop! Summer is a comin'! And I can't wait for Glen Lake with its offer of nothing but writing for 24/7 all week long. (Along with a little bike riding, skinny dipping, ice-cream eating, and s'more roasting.)

Work has been crazy. The weather has been crazy. My family has been crazy. All God's children have been crazy! Or that's how it feels anyway. My writing is getting squeezed--enough that I think I might have to start lying. "Oh, I have a meeting for work tonight." "I'm not feeling well (cough, cough). I think I need to stay home and rest for a day."

Sigh. It won't happen. There's always too much to do at home and things at work that I can't miss. Still....

Today I was thinking about book trailers. We had Margaret Willey come in and speak to our sixth graders and she mentioned that if you are going to write a YA novel--you have to make a book trailer for it.

So when does one do that? Before you get an agent/publisher? Or after? Would that help sell it? Any of you out there played with making a book trailer? We have students do this at school, so I have the basic concept down. But trust me, the quality would have to be a lot better before I'd want to put anything out there to potential readers/publishers.

Still, something to think about when I'm busy doing ten zillion other things besides writing.

Book signing

Mark Wolfgang will be signing "Bedderhoff Dead" at Bestseller's Bookstore in downtown Mason MI on Saturday, April 16th. He'll probably issue reminders as the day approaches.

Laughing down south

Wanted to let you know that I've signed up to have a table at Books Alive, a local writing/reading conference on Feb. 5 sponsored by the Panama City Library. Carl Haissen will be the keynote speaker. But, I will have a table there where I can sign and sell copies of Laughing for a Living. I'm looking at my other books -- Good News Town and Royal Death -- with an eye to publishing them on Lulu too. I know the sales will be limited, but not as limited as being stuck in the drawer. And, maybe, if I get busy, I'll have a sequel to Good News Town written by the time I get home from Florida! I've been complaining that it isn't as warm as I would like, but hey, if it's chilly, maybe I'll get more writing done!

Six-word resolutions

Today's Mood: Industrious. Today's Music: Ipod on shuffle. Today's Writing: journal. Today's Quote:

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." -E.B. White

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This morning I sat down to reflect on the past year--as well as make some resolutions for 2011. I have been reading a couple of books called

Close

Not quite what I was planning; six-word memoirs by writers famous and obscure, and so I decided to write my reflections as well as my goals in six words. In some ways it made it easier and in some ways harder. There were so many things that happened this year, it's impossible to even remember it all. When I only have six words, I am forced to focus only on a few things.

My reflections on 2010:

Year went by; not everything done.
Year went by; more to do.
A year gone by. Not published.
Chocolate and wine consumed in measure.
Family, work, writing--they don't balance.
Still haven't finished damned rough draft.
Should have written more, cleaned less.
House not condemned--can still write.

As for resolutions:

Write more and more and more.
Finish rough draft--revise, revise, revise.
Write when inspired--daily at 6:30.
Eat less, exercise more--good luck.
Send out awesome query--get published.
Become famous and then find publisher.
Exercise and write more--goodbye sleep.

How about you? How was your 2010? And do you have any resolutions for 2011?

And the beat goes on...

Just to update the status of my book sales via Lulu. They send me a weekly report and so far I have sold 15 books online, all friends and relatives I'm sure. It's not heading for the New York Times Best Seller list anytime soon. Steve and I are in Florida now for 3 months. I brought 25 books with me with the plan of having a book signing while I'm down here for the snowbird group. I'll let you know as that evolves. So, have I sparked any interest in self-publishing? Any questions for Mark or myself about publishing on Lulu?

Blame the snow

Tonight's book signing at Civic Theatre was a bust. Sold a grand total of four books and three of those were to Civic Theatre employees. Everyone told me book signings are not a good way to sell books but I thought I had figured the angles: A book about theater, benefiting a theater, sold in a theater to a theater audience. People didn't even stop by to get some candy or pick up a free bookmark. And that's with a nice story in The Press and a great radio interview. It makes you think about what it takes to grab people's interest.

News of Sue

Check out this article on Sue Merrell's book Laughing for a Living in the GR Press.