Thank you to the folks at Operation Awesome who let me visit and share a previous article with their readers. If you’re looking for inspiration for all kinds of writing topics, drop in and visit them.
Here’s a link to my Guest Post.
Category Archives: Writing
Fear of Rejection
The arrow of the mouse pointer hovering over the ‘Send’ button. The email meticulously crafted, submission guidelines checked and double-checked. Once sent, it cannot be undone. Will they love it? Will they hate it? Is it good enough? Will anyone else love it like I do? Will anyone besides my husband and my writing group ever read it?
All of these thoughts swirled through my mind as I clicked ‘Send’ tonight on my most recent submission. Now I wait… hoping for quick news about the fate of my latest story. It is par for the course in the life of an author – but also that of any writer who puts themselves and their work out there for consumption. Whether it be the first time or the hundredth time, waiting for acceptance and fearing the rejection–rejection that is statistically more likely–is perhaps the hardest part of this publishing endeavor.
- © Rolffimages | Dreamstime Stock Photos
For the moment, I’m trying not to stress and starting another project. May the universe and the submission editors smile on the latest slice of my soul that I just sent out into the world.
Learning to Say No
I believe I’ve found the next lesson the Universe is trying to force feed me.
I cannot do everything as I have always done. My days feel shorter, my nights more jam packed with activities and commitments, and I’m consistently bombarded with new offers and new projects. My first reaction is to say yes immediately, then figure out how to fit whatever it is into my project plan that somehow, amid all the chaos, resembles a satisfying life.
I’m impulsive that way. I always have been.
Here’s the reality: The project plan is full. Constraints cannot be overcome by throwing more money or resources at them. There are no more resources in reserve. Unless someone has invented a time machine that automatically doubles the hours available to me every day. In which case, I haven’t heard the news yet.
Which means I have to start prioritizing, balancing all the things I want to do and would love to do with realistic expectations of what I am capable of doing without losing my marbles.
Is my volunteer work within a professional writing organization paying the right dividends to justify the time spent away from my actual writing?
Is my time away from my family pursuing my writing career being spent in worthwhile ways?
Was I completely insane when I thought I could have a full time job, be a wife and mother and be a professional author on top of it all?
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I wish I had a crystal ball!
I don’t know the answers, I do know that summer has been hectic. I’ve got a couple of short stories to show for all the insanity but the novel is still not finished. Time to ramp up the efforts and get rigid with my time. ‘I can sleep when I’m dead’ has become my mantra.
It’s time to learn how to say No.
The closer I whittle the things that make up my life down to the things that matter most, the harder it is to cut away without damaging the gems underneath. At the end of the day, I’m left with knowing that just because I’m capable of doing anything I set out to do, that doesn’t mean everything I attempt will make me happy. Sometimes it’s too hard to fit it into what I’m already doing and the right answer in that moment will be No. No matter how cool it sounds, or how fun I imagine it will be.
In related news… watch for upcoming announcements about the next big thing I’ve got cooking and currently taking most of my free time. Hint: it’s happening at Salt Lake Comic Con.
Johnny Worthen: An Interview and a Review
I visited with author Johnny Worthen this week after reading his latest book, THE BRAND DEMAND. Johnny writes books I like to read and I wanted to give readers an insight into this mystery thriller, as well as pick his brain about some insider secrets for other aspiring authors.
Galen is political. Galen is fed up. Galen is a blackmailer.
Brand is a jerk who has money. He had an affair and Galen found out. Now Brand has
new problems.
A criminal and self-styled Robin Hood, Galen must face down a ruthless enemy who
does not share his ideological limitations.
In the footsteps of Edward Abbey’s THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG, THE BRAND
DEMAND follows a group of political activists who strike at the system with cunning and
guile while getting rich doing it.
Galen takes risks and money, but when his plans go awry, he quickly learns that politics
are no substitute for wits.
Galen has to come to grips with his own boundaries of action and love while running for
his life in Southern Utah. He has to stay under the radar, dodging skinheads and corporate
moguls, Latter Day Saints romance writers and cheating husbands and—of course and
always—the authorities.
Johnny, The Brand Demand is a departure from your previous works. When did you write it in relation to the others you’ve released?
I consider myself a multi-genre author. Since no one has asked me to specialize, I haven’t. “I write what I like to read. This guarantees me at least one fan.” Although my debut, BEATRYSEL is a literary horror, and my second book ELEANOR, THE UNSEEN begins a YA Paranormal trilogy, this is more a reflection of what was first out of the gate. Contemporary mystery/thriller is one of my favorite genres and I tend to write plenty of them. THE BRAND DEMAND is the first of this genre out of the gate, but not the last.
THE BRAND DEMAND was one of the first books I wrote. It was born out of the Bush years and my own frustration and imaginings. Over the years, I returned to it time and time again, tinkering and fixing, adjusting and reworking as my craft improved, until I could take it no further alone. Then I hired an editor in Nevada to help me fix it some more. When she was done, I sent it out in the world looking to get it published.
My main publisher, Jolly Fish Press, passed on it, thinking it was too controversial for that point in my career with them. JFP has me primarily as a YA author, though they are bringing out THE FINGER TRAP, a comedy noir detective thriller in the fall. They suggested I keep it in my quiver and they’d look at it again later on.
Being impatient, I didn’t wait. I submitted it to Cherokee McGhee, a small press in Virginia specializing in mysteries. Greg Lily, the publisher was wonderful to work with and bent over backwards with JFP to coordinate the release of THE BRAND DEMAND so as not interfere with my other releases this year. Another couple of edits, coordination on cover and stuff and I have become a mystery writer.
I’m not patient either! We could talk days about how you found the right publisher for your work – maybe we should in the future? But back to THE BRAND DEMAND, why a mystery with all these politics and religion thrown in?
Political ideology is the primary motivation for the protagonist, Galen Reed. It is his deeply felt beliefs in social justice that drives him to act. This ideology and its limitations and weak tethering are the crux of the book.
Religion is mentioned only insofar as it wields political power and is a central identifier in the community. THE BRAND DEMAND takes place in Utah and there is no separating the LDS church from the conservative politics in that state. Further, the LDS church has been known to reach well beyond Utah to influence social issues – Prop 8 in California being a prime example. To discuss politics in Utah and exclude the Mormon church would be dishonest.
That honest look at the world is largely what I loved about this book, as well as recognizing familiar places and history weaved in. The first chapter should come with a sensitivity warning – potentially pushing buttons left and right. Why risk possibly alienating readers in the opening pages?
I assume you’re talking about Levi, the bad bishop. THE BRAND DEMAND is an adult book. It looks at real situations, real dangers and real institutions in a fictitious way, strange as that sounds. The scene sets the theme and mood of the rest of the book; hypocrites and bad guys are made to feel uncomfortable and made to pay. What is a more telling example of a hypocrite that a clergyman taking advantage of his flock? In Utah, that flock must be Mormon. There are bad apples in every institution and to deny that is arrogance. Here I present someone who so goes against their beliefs as a philandering bishop that it becomes the perfect symbol for the rest of the book. Compare Levi to Galen as the book progresses and then at the ending.
I’m not attacking the religion, I’m attacking the hypocrites who preach it but don’t live it. I think it humanizes the church but I’ve seen that it can upset people. If they can make it through the first chapter and understand what I’m doing, readers should be in the proper mindset to understand and enjoy the rest of the book.
Well done. Personally, I love books that keep things real; grown up books that make no apologies about the world. Once past that chapter it becomes exactly as promised, a thriller that kept me guessing until the end. What is your secret to unpredictable twists?
THE BRAND DEMAND is a unique book for me because I woke one day and had the ending. I felt the triumph and tragedy of a single moment and then went to work building a book around that singular moment. I felt it like a sorrow, like a memory, an epiphany of understanding. I won’t say I worked backwards, but I always worked to that one moment.
To justify that moment, I needed a journey, I needed real life threats and stakes beyond anything a bourgeois zealot might expect to face. I needed my suburban activist to face real world pressures, violence and dangers. I needed him to realize a connection to what he was fighting for. The twists came from my cruelty in putting Galen through the trials he’d have to face to come to that moment. The details came from research and horror at the world we live in.
Is this a stand-alone novel or can readers expect more to come in Galen’s world?
Depending on the success of THE BRAND DEMAND and my publisher’s wishes, there might be more. I have laid a foundation. One thing to note for my loyal readers, is the unified world I create in my Utah novels. Characters from one book often appear in others. Look for Luke in THE FINGER TRAP this fall.
I saw the hidden gem in this one knowing your upcoming publications. I love when authors do that – a literary treasure hunt for those devoted fans. How long does it take you to write an average novel?
Honest, but lame answer: A lifetime. My life up to the point the book is finally sent to the printers is all incorporated into each book.
More useful answer: Once I decide on a project, I give myself one month to pre-write, outline and imagine, create characters, find names. Plan the attack with waypoint, scenes, ending, and theme – always theme. Once I have my pieces together, I try to write 1,666 words per day. I keep daily logs of my progress and make myself reach my goals as if it’s my job and I’ll be fired if I don’t. It’s kinda’ true and kinda’ not. It’s all insane mind-games to force me to put the black on the white. At this rate I get a book in about two months. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Then I edit the book. For some books, like THE BRAND DEMAND, the editing went on for years. For others, like my most recent works, a month is usually enough to get it where I want it to be. I write a synopsis or five and a blurb while it’s still fresh in my mind and then I let my readers have it for a run through. Then it’s off to market and I start another project.
Let’s stay on the subject of insider secrets for other aspiring writers. I envy you being this prolific writer, a new book releasing every few months. What I’m learning about the industry is most authors have numerous novels already finished while they keep their heads down, always writing more. How many of your books are written and waiting to sell?
I have written twelve novels as of now. Six have been picked up by publishers. Of the remaining six, five are ready to be picked up by a publisher. Two are in series that begins this fall (Tony Flaner in THE FINGER TRAP). I’m expecting my publisher to pick those up by and by. The others are being shopped to agents for larger markets.
Twelve. I have a lot of writing to do if I ever expect to find similar success. What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned so far on your journey?
On the bad side, rejections surprise me. I expected them, but I also thought I’d get used to them. I haven’t and they never stop. Writing as much as I do, trying as hard as I am, I’m putting myself out there all the time. Every day I get rejected for something. It’s mentally debilitating.
On the good side, I love the other authors I’ve met. They too suffer from the rejections. They are comrades in arms. I love talking about writing, sharing with other authors, and just hanging out. I’ve met so many different authors, different kinds, different backgrounds and everything, and yet I feel a kinship to them all. The only thing better than hanging out with a bunch of writers is hanging out with a bunch of fans of my books.
I would have to agree on the genuineness of the kinship with fellow writers. On the publishing front, are there more books we can look forward to? And if so, when?
Beyond THE BRAND DEMAND, this year I have the second book in THE UNSEEN trilogy: CELESTE. DAVID, THE UNSEEN BOOK THREE is schedule for 2016.
This fall, I release upon the world, my anti-hero slacker, detective, Tony Flaner, in the social commentary, comedy, mystery noir, THE FINGER TRAP.
While all this is happening, I’m placing my unsold titles. I have a literary horror called WHAT IMMORTAL HAND, that I won’t let go of until I get the right home. It’s awesome. I have a new crime thriller called A BLIND SQUIRREL that’s cool with a capital C. It’s one of my Utah novels so has characters from my other books in it. I just finished a YA adventure called ANDI KENDRICK: THINGS BEQUEATHED which will be a good follow-up for fans of THE UNSEEN trilogy. My un-ready book is a YA dystopian that I put aside to ferment for a while. And finally, this week marks the final days of my pre-writing for a Science Fiction book (and potential series). WIP name: Coronam.
I can’t wait to read all of them. Where can readers find and connect with you?
For locals in Utah, come out to the Sugarhouse Barnes & Noble, Saturday April 18th from 2:00-5:00 p.m. for the official BRAND DEMAND Launch party and signing shindig. Here’s the invitation to the Launch Party Shindig
Thanks for stopping by, Johnny! Readers can check out my Goodreads review of THE BRAND DEMAND HERE. It is a fabulous read so do yourself a favor and pick it up today.
Priorities – the evolution of time management
I realized that, as much as I am online lately, I have been strangely silent on social media the past few months. It wasn’t on purpose and I wondered how it had happened. When and where did my habits shift? I’m an analyst by nature, and by trade, so it made sense to do so. Self reflection and checking in on what I’m doing to make course corrections in my life path are pretty second-nature to me these days.
So what did I find?
I’m busier than ever before – as a mother and a wife, being a writer, at my corporate job, as a volunteer – and have had to further prioritize everything in my life. This is a trend that started years ago and continues to evolve.
The first thing to go was television. It grew from an “ah-ha!” moment when I heard another author answer a question about how he found time to write with a snarky comment about figuring out what was more important: writing or watching television. These days when people ask “did you see…” I always say no. Thanks to the wonders of Netflix and OnDemand programming, I do watch a little television; mostly the shows Hubby has vetted and deemed extraordinary, but it takes me a year to watch a couple of seasons. The time I got back from my life by giving up regular television viewing is staggering.
Last year I had to change my habits during football season. I’m a huge fan – NFL and college. I’m one of those women who is watching the game even if Hubby isn’t home. (Thank you, Dad, brothers and grandpa!) But gone are the fall Saturdays where I lounge on the couch snuggled with hubby watching our favorite college teams, and the Sundays of NFL games. Not to mention Monday Night Football. And yes, sadly, even Thursday Night Football. The games are still on and Hubby still interrupts with “you’ve gotta see this!” while he’s rewinding live television. But, now I’m usually multitasking in front of my word processor and look up only occasionally for a replay. It was my last hold-out of regular television viewing, and justified in my mind because it is a relatively short season each year. The time I got back from giving it up last year was the difference between having time to finish a novel or not. I’m currently revising that novel.
My social media habits have undergone similar evolution, also influenced by writing. First, I’ve had to change my criteria for engaging with ‘friends’ online. Now that I’m out there in the public eye, people I don’t know seek me out. I’ve had to throw out my cardinal rule: if I don’t know you well enough to say hello if we run into each other at the store, we aren’t close enough to be online friends. Knowing that casual acquaintances are seeing my updates unconsciously influences what I choose to share. Next, I’m heavily involved with professional organizations centered around writing and publishing. Using Facebook to interact with these groups has become my main use of the app. I’m online – a lot – but in secret groups where only those who also belong get to see what I’m up to. My brain didn’t translate that the type of activity I’m engaging in was different and failed to allocate an increase of resources to compensate. Frankly, I just don’t have that kind of time anymore. Well, and my corporate job started blocking Gmail and Facebook, eliminating my ability to multitask in small increments of two to three minutes over the course of the day.
Recently I read an article related to how much effort authors should invest in engaging with social media to sell their books. It was well written and had me thinking about all the effort anyone trying to sell a product gives to social media – and how much time it can suck from what is really important. What if we all just used these sites to connect with real people and create meaningful relationships? What if Twitter was really a feed about what’s going on with life and not a constant barrage of people trying to sell me something? It has become so much noise, no one listens anymore. What if all the time we spent online were better suited somewhere else doing things more essential to our happiness? I know I’ve been more productive since my habits have changed even subtly so I’m sticking with the trend.
I wonder what will be next in this incremental evolution in focusing my efforts toward productivity and efficiently in all the areas that I’ve deemed matter most in my life. Or have I reached my full capacity with all the things I’m doing now? Last weekend I was at a family gathering with my siblings and their families. During the reminiscent viewing of a movie we used to watch with our mom – over and over – I found myself reaching for my laptop to work on a certification test I have coming up. Is this just my nature now, to evaluate what the best use of my time is in every moment? Time will only tell. For now, my time management has evolved to a great place where I can commit to saying ‘yes’ to unsolicited invitations to submit stories to publishers. Life is good but only if you make it that way!
Secrets & Doors: My Personal Irony
I love being part of the Secret Door Society. The vision of giving back to the world appeals to me on many levels. This project isn’t just about getting a publishing credential or selling books. And when you buy a copy, it isn’t just about buying another book. It’s about helping make a difference; making the world a better place. Secrets & Doors is significant for me as a debut author. Wherever the rest of my career takes me, this will always be my first; the culmination of toil and hard work that started with my love of reading way back when I was a child, thanks to my mom.
The irony of Secrets & Doors for me also lies with my mom. All proceeds – from both the authors as well as Crimson Edge Publishing – are being donated to diabetes research. After decades of suffering from this horrible disease, my mom died just five months before my first published work would help rid the world of it. Wherever the rest of my career takes me, this one will always be dedicated to her.
How does one die of diabetes? In more ways than a horror writer can imagine. Cardiovascular disease, stroke, and kidney failure are the most serious long-term complications. Diabetes also damages the nerves, can lead to amputation of limbs and muscle wasting diseases, damages the eyes and affects every organ system if left untreated. In my mom’s case, it led to liver disease and kidney failure which took her from us at the arguably young age of sixty-five.
Imagine a world where no more moms died of diabetes. No more kids had to take daily injections of insulin to survive. Projects like this are just the beginning for the Secret Door Society but none will have such a personal impact for me like Secrets & Doors. Thanks for letting me be a part of it!
The Third Birthday That Almost Wasn’t
I’ve gotten good at living in the moment and appreciating every day as if it might be my last, each milestone a cause for pause and celebration no matter how small. I turned another year older in January which marks the third birthday that almost wasn’t. What a year it’s been on so many fronts.
Being published brings a new level of insanity I had no idea awaited me. Promoting a book is more demanding work than creating the story in the first place. The editing process was a whirlwind and consumed most of the holidays. Now we are neck deep in blog tours and article writing and cross promoting and networking and planning the unofficial release party at LTUE next week. I did more writing in January than any January on record but the majority of production was NOT on my current novel. How to keep up with everything and still continue to produce the next book has become the latest thing I need to learn. Regardless, I wouldn’t trade the experience and the thrill for anything. I have an author page on Amazon. Seriously. Amazon. I still wake up sometimes and forget it is real. I’m published.
This year also brought me a new association of authors and thrust me into the non-profit world. It is an amazing group and my closest friends from my writing group are part of it. Bonus! The group happened to put together a lunch on my birthday. But, I have a demanding day job so I couldn’t make a Wednesday lunch work. I was sad, but that’s life and the day job pays for it so what can you do? Unexpectedly, my calendar opened up and I had the afternoon free so I took it off to celebrate my birthday. It was the perfect lunch full of tiaras, signing each others books, group photos, selfies and raucous conversation certain to make fellow diners uncomfortable. “How many does he have?” “Did she leave him?” “I had to kill her off last night.” I’m certain the fifteen of us all talking over one another was like a tornado in an otherwise subdued setting. We hadn’t all been together since before the holidays and it was a loud reunion. It was the perfect start to my birthday. I sat there in the midst of award winning authors, successful editors, non-profit founders, a lawyer and just plain powerful writers all brought together because of our love of writing. I marvel that they had become my people. I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
I came home to my new business cards in the mail. I’m official! Everything is moving at the speed of light careening me deeper into this life of my dreams. It still feels surreal. If this birthday had been stolen from me back in 2011, none of this would have happened.
For my birthday I got a sparkly “Birthday Girl” tiara from one of my friends. It started with a mention and snowballed into a new thing we do. Writing fueled by a tiara on your head. All the most bad-ass chick writers I know are doing it. Enough of us we’ve formed a collective. I may or may not have more than one. I’ll never tell! Maybe this is the key to figuring out how to promote and create at the same time. (How did I ever write in solitude before?)
The best and most freeing part of this birthday that almost never was is owning the new number proudly. I am forty-three. Something about being faced with the real possibility of never seeing the number get bigger than thirty-nine makes it much more of a celebration to see forty-three. It is liberating not giving a shit what the number is. So many people cringe at the thought of disclosing their true age. I say own it – the alternative to that number getting bigger as we get older is far, far worse. I know FORTY THREE never felt better. I’m loving every minute of this stolen year I am grateful to be celebrating. Here’s to many more to come!
Setting the Scene in a Small Piece
Let’s talk short fiction for a minute. I learned so much about writing any length piece by writing short stories. For the Secrets & Doors blog tour, each author is discussing an aspect of writing. Writing is far more difficult when each sentence must do more than one thing since you can’t devote an entire sentence to each aspect of the writing. The old adage of “choose your words wisely” applies especially to short fiction. Set a tone, build characters, set the stage, provide necessary information for the reader to move the plot forward – all of these can be done with an economy of words.
Reflection is a sci-fi dystopian story where the people of Earth have been living on another planet after fleeing a threat that is still searching for them. In order to protect themselves, they hid the truth in rules that over generations have become folklore and superstition. It was originally written as a novelette at eight thousand words. Far too long for the submission guidelines for this project. Cutting more than half the words while conveying an alien world and telling the story was challenging. When setting this particular scene, I found it most effective not to point out every detail but, instead, to note those things that were different from our world. The sky that isn’t blue, the absence of tall mountains, and that it rarely rains become significant. Contrasting these differences with what the reader knows already from his own experience highlights them, creating the backdrop of the story.
Choosing your words wisely is true in individual scenes as well. I am a novel writer which means I can use lots of words. But I don’t have to. Instead of saying he turned and picked up a box, he just picked it up. My writing group called me Verbose Girl because in the early days I had a tendency to write a lot to make sure I fully explained every detail. It didn’t always translate to the reader as I wanted it to. The truth is, even novel writing is better when you use an economy of words like a smaller piece. The last thing you want is your reader to get bogged down. The tighter the language, the more engrossing the story becomes.
Terra Luft - View From the Crystal Ball 