A Change of Mind and Other Stories by Nick Wilford

A Change of Mind and Other Stories consists of a novella, four short stories, and one flash fiction piece. This collection puts the extremes of human behaviour under the microscope with the help of lashings of dark humour, and includes four pieces previously published in Writer’s Muse magazine.

In A Change of Mind, Reuben is an office worker so meek and mild he puts up with daily bullying from his boorish male colleagues as if it’s just a normal part of his day. But when a stranger points him in the direction of a surgeon offering a revolutionary new procedure, he can’t pass up the chance to turn his life around.

But this isn’t your average surgeon. For a start, he operates alone in a small room above a mechanic’s. And he promises to alter his patients’ personality so they can be anything they want to be…

In Marissa, a man who is determined to find evidence of his girlfriend’s infidelity ends up wondering if he should have left well alone.

The Dog God finds a chink in the armour of a man with a megalomaniacal desire to take over the world.

In The Insomniac, a man who leads an obsessively regimented lifestyle on one hour’s sleep a night finds a disruption to his routine doesn’t work for him.

Hole In One sees a dedicated golfer achieving a lifelong ambition.

The Loner ends the collection on a note of hope as two family members try to rebuild their lives after they are torn apart by jealousy.

Bio

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those rare times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working, he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. You can find him hanging out on his blog or on Goodreads or Twitter.

Preorder Links: Amazon US, Amazon UK

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Title:  A Change of Mind and Other Stories

Author:  Nick Wilford

Genre:  Contemporary speculative fiction

Cover Design:  Rebekah Romani
Release Date:  May 25^th 2015

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A Note from Nancy

It's been a very long time since I posted here. The writing life has utterly consumed me, and I find time for little else these days. (I'm working on my third novel, another thriller, but hot, hot HOT in the romance department! Seems once you publish, you have to keep churning stories out so your readers don't forget you.  And they have short memories and voracious appetites, so my beloved blog has suffered for it.  

I miss all my blogger friends dearly. I wish I had time to make the rounds and see what everyone is up to.  Many of you are on Facebook, so I see you often.  Others are not, and therefore, I miss what they're up to.  I worked hard to build up a following here, and I don't want to give my blog up completely.  

So, if any of you would like to ever post here, please contact me via email at acadia1997@msn.com and use the subject line: MAY I BORROW YOUR BLOG?  Then send me whatever you want and I'll schedule a post at your direction. 

And the Nominations Are...OR...I Think God Just Bitch-Slapped Me

So, after a long hiatus, I’m starting to ease back into this whole blogging thing.  I have to make it a part of my schedule again, not easy when there’s so much to be done.  I didn’t count on a health issue getting in the way, but it did, just last week, right as I jumped back into the IWSG.  But at least I have answers to long-nagging questions, and, with proper treatment, I hope to be on the mend soon and back to making the rounds, getting reacquainted with everyone.

In addition to the bad news last week, I did get some good.  My first novel, The Mistaken, was just nominated for 4 eFestival of Words 2014 Best of the Independent eBook Awards—Best Thriller, Best Hero, Best Audiobook, and The Harvey Award.  Cassie Mae told me that last one was for the book voters most want to see made into a movie, which she would know about since her book, Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend, was also nominated in that category, as well as Best YA.  But she’s not the only one of my bloggy friends whose books were nominated. 

Alex J. Cavanaugh’s CassaStorm was nominated for best Sci-fi, Lisa Regan’s Aberration for Best Novel, Thriller, Villain, and the “I’ve Been Shamyland” Award, Carrie Butler’s Strength  for Best NA and her Mark of Nexus Series for Best Series, Michael Infinito’s 12:19 for Best Horror and In Blog We Trust for the “I’ve Been Shamyland” Award,  Michelle Brownlow’s In Too Deep for Best NA and Best Villain, and Dana Mason’s Dangerous Embrace for Best Romance and Best Mystery/Suspense. 

A few of my Facebook friends were nominated, too, like Kristine Cayne, Julie Richman, Julie Hartnett, and MK Harkins. Even one of the books I edited last year got nominated for best editing, AL Jackson’s If Forever Comes, though my name was mysteriously left off that list. 

All in all, it made my spirits rise a bit while I battle this “profound anemia” I was diagnosed with.  I feel confident that, with successful treatment, I will be back to my old self and bugging all of you once again.

And if you have the chance, I'd LOVE to know what you think of my newly released novel, Leverage, a dark romantic thriller with twists and turns galore! 

How Do You Measure Your Own Success?

Last week, in response to my post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, many commenters spoke of how a writer’s focus often changes once he or she is agented, signs a book deal, and/or gets published.  It only makes sense that this would happen.  Just as our dreams and careers are not static, neither should our blogs remain fixed. 

The purpose to my blog was to chronicle my journey toward publication.  In the beginning, though I had a book, I had no idea if it was saleable or if I could even consider myself an actual writer.  I met others along the way who were exactly where I was on the journey and many others who were farther along—agented and hoping beyond all hope for a publishing contract.  And still others who had their contract or were even already published. 

I enjoy reading each writer’s contribution, studying their progress, and partaking of their generous advice and experience.  I’ve never felt any jealousy but rather a sense of encouragement that it is all, in fact, possible somehow, if I just work hard enough.  But even having said that, there has to be some measurement of success along the way, some way that we, in our own right, encourage ourselves to continue, to not give up. 

For each of us, I imagine, it’s quite different.  I know when I started blogging, I was excited if one person read and commented on my posts.  Then it became all about the number of followers I had and how many I was adding each month.  After my numbers increased, I measured my success by the number of comments I had for each post.  I still do both of these to some extent, but I’ve become less obsessed with the overall numbers.

In the past few months, it’s been more about my book and who’s added it to their Goodreads TBR pile, but that seems rather shortsighted of me.  Now, all I can think about—the one true way in which I can gauge my own success—is by my writing.  That means I have to write another book. 

Over the last two-plus years, I’ve often wondered if this whole experience is not just some kind of fluke.  I’ve asked myself if I could ever duplicate it, if I could ever do it again.  So that’s how I’ll be calculating my success now.  Can I do it again?  Can I plot and write another novel worth publishing? 

I have my doubts.  Serious ones, too.  I’m working on another story, a sequel to The Mistaken.  In fact, I was flying along in the outline phase until my edits came in from my publisher for the first book.  Then I came to a screeching halt.  Afterwards, one of my dogs died and the other got very sick.  I know once my son goes off to college out-of-state in a little less than two weeks, I’ll have all the time in the world to focus on my new WIP and move it along again.  Still, there’s that part of me that thinks I’ll never be able to do it again.  But I’ve always been of the mind that if I did it once, I can do it again.  God, I sure hope so.

So what about you—how do you measure your own success?    

            

Why Do We Do This?

Why do we do this?  Why blog?  Most of the folks I interact with online are writers, like me.  Many of us have written novels or memoirs we want to see through to publication, and part of that journey requires we “build a platform.”  That means we must establish a public identity, a soapbox, if you will, to display our talent or voice or whatever it is we want and need to exhibit.  It’s more or less so we become recognizable, build a following, have fans who might consider buying our books.  It’s part of the job.  But there’s no rule that says we have to.  It’s a choice to put ourselves out there for everyone to see and possibly criticize.

I wasn’t thrilled when I realized I needed to establish a blog.  It’s just one more thing on my vast list of things to do, and it’s a very time-consuming one, at that.  Not so much the actual writing itself, but rather the giving back, the trolling of all the other blogs, the reading, the following, the commenting.  It’s practically a full-time job in itself.  Just ask Alex Cavanaugh.  It’s playfully believed he has an army of clones who comment on all the blogs he follows.  So if it’s so hard, why do it?  Certainly our time would be better spent writing our stories, sending out queries, or agonizing over revisions.

What I’ve found is that, in this most solitary of professions or vocations, there are others just like me, who want to connect, who need to feel a part of something, a community, a brotherhood, a family.  We don’t compete against each other.  We’re there for moral support or a virtual hug, a pat on the back or smack upside the head.  We are a team.  I, for one, know for a fact that I could never have gotten as far as I currently have without all my writer and blogger friends.  It is the single most supportive community I’ve ever personally been a part of.  And I’m proud of that, of all the folks who populate that community.  Or almost all the folks anyway, until I read a few of the comments on one of Cassie Mae’s blog posts last week.

It was a sweet post, as Cassie’s often are, about being tagged and recognized for receiving several blog awards, ones she most decidedly deserves.  Yet, while nearly every one of her friends offered congratulations for being such an inspiration to others, a few commenters felt the need, or thought it was the appropriate place, to criticize Cassie for not being serious enough, for not putting herself high enough up on a platform, as the commenter erroneously believes all authors should.  To be above it all.  To be adult and write material so she can be taken earnestly as a writer.

My thought when I read one of those comments:  

  

Seriously, it’s like someone being invited into your bedroom, asked to sit down on your bed for a chat then proceed to rifle through your drawers, open your diary, read it, and criticize you for what you’ve written.  I mean, basically, that’s kind of what our blogs are, a journal of what’s important to us, what matters, what makes us happy or irritates the hell out of us.  Just because we open the door and ask someone if they’d like to come on in for awhile doesn’t mean they should be rude or offer unrelated, unwanted, uninvited opinions on a completely irrelevant topic.  And then to do so without even introducing themselves, without offering a link so their authority could be recognized, so the merits of their expertise could be verified, well, that’s just plain cowardly.  And if I may say so, not very writerly at all.

What was writerly though was the reaction some of her friends had.  They took a virtual step in between Cassie and her assailants and endorsed what we all believe, that our blogs are our own.  They are who we are, what we are, and how we are.  They are an extension of our lives, our beliefs, our interests, our talents, of our very personalities.  They are us.  And we are them.  Who’s to say we’re doing it all wrong?  By what authority?  Sure, I would never post anything inappropriate or embarrassing to my publisher or friends or family or anybody, really.  But what I say, what I write, if it’s about me, it belongs there exactly as I want it, as I’ve written it. 

It’s my blog and I’ll say what I wanna say, do what I wanna do, be who I wanna be.

What about you?  What do you think?  Why do you blog?

Bad News Isn't Always a Bad Thing

Being a writer is a tough gig.  There’s very little payback and we generally work alone.  Yes, it’s true, this new age of blogging has allowed us to reach out and connect with others, more so than we would have been able to at any other time.  But still, we are pretty much alone, stuck in our own heads, making up strange tales set in strange lands with strange people. 

            We experience minor victories from time to time.  We string together coherent sentences, then paragraphs and chapters, plots and subplots, until, finally, we have a book.  We are so proud.  Not many people even attempt to write a book let alone finish one.  Afterwards, we read and revise, edit and add content.  We scrub and buff until it shines like an uncut diamond.  Then, if we’re lucky, we find amazing critique partners who help us polish our gem until its sparkles like Edward Cullen on a sunny day. 

            When we’re ready, we go through the whole process again with our query letter.  Scribble, scratch, buff and shine.  We are not daunted by the research necessary to find the appropriate agents to send our query.  We compile our list and format our submissions, cringing with raw nerves when we hit the send button.

            Then we wait.  And wait some more—more and more and more and more.  Every time we get a new email, we wonder if it could be the one.  And when it’s not, when it’s nothing more than another rejection, we shrink a little lower in our seats, lose a little more confidence.  We may even cry. 

            But then we get one, maybe even two or three, or—good God almighty—four:  a request for pages, a partial or the whole damn thing.  A happy dance ensues, perhaps a bit of screaming and raising of one’s arms towards God in heaven. 

But not for long.  Gotta get those pages out.   

            Then we wait.  And wait some more—more and more and more and more.  We thought we were tense before, but now with our baby out in the big, bad world, we’re ready to spin like a top we’re so wound up.  Again, every time a new email arrives, we wonder.  But it’s been so long, we almost forget.  Until we see that agent’s name above the subject line with our book title right below.  Our hands shake, our breathing gets shorter and more labored as we open it.

Then the world comes crashing down around our ears.  Utter devastation.  That first rejection of our full manuscript is unbearably painful, but eventually, after days of tears and heartbreak, we brush ourselves off and move forward.

            The next rejection hurts, as well, but there’s nothing really to glean from it because, once again, it’s just a simple no thanks, but good luck to you.  Nothing to tell us we’re on the right track or not.  So, though our pride is stinging and our confidence is waning, we trudge onward, perhaps making a revision or two, just a tweak here and there to make us feel like we’re improving it somehow.  And out go more queries in sporadic bursts. 

            Then we wait.  Again.  But this time, we’re a bit numb.  Our skin is definitely getting thicker.  We’ve learned to put those queries out of mind and get on with life.  And so, when another request comes in, we’re excited, but wary, especially since we know this is likely just a favor from our friend’s agent.  But it’s a request nonetheless.  So out go those pages, one more time.  We sigh, thinking of the long wait before us, cringing at that stupid typo in the very first paragraph on the very first page that we didn’t notice until after we’d already sent it.    

            But then another request comes in.  Hope!  Pages go out.  Another long sigh.  Another long wait.  And then another request.  Even more hope!  Sigh.  Wait.  And wait some more.  And more and more and more.

            Then something remarkable happens.  It’s not a good thing, mind you, but neither is it entirely bad.  Yeah, it’s a rejection and so it hurts a little, but the skin is pretty tough now and the pain is just a tingle of disappointment rather than a ripping out of the heart.  It was improbable anyway.  This was, after all, that favor request.  But this time the email is not a one line denial of interest.  And while the agent is “just short of enthusiastic enough to take it on and fight for it,” she says “there’s a lot of wonderful stuff in there” and “goodness knows, it was very close.”  So even though she suggests a change in the protagonist’s name, it’s cool.  It’s an easy fix.  And if that’s the worst thing she can think of, there’s reason to feel good.  That’s the best rejection letter ever!

            My point here is that we get a lot more bad news than good, but bad news is not always a bad thing.  Sometimes it lifts our sagging confidence, offers a push back onto the road, granted with a little coarse correction.  We know we’re getting closer to our destination.  We can feel it.  The trick is to not give up, even when the bad news is really bad.  You never know when a little ray of sunshine will come along and brighten your otherwise dreary day.  And hey, there are still a few requested pages out there.  And after that, there are always more agents to query.  It’s not the end game yet.           

                                             

Pay It Forward

Today, awesomely cool bloggers Alex Cavanaugh and Matthew MacNish are hosting the Pay It Forward Blogfest.  The idea is to introduce all of us to everyone else, to meet and follow as many other bloggers as we like. In our posts, participants are to list, describe, and link to three blogs that we enjoy reading and believe others would enjoy, as well. 

Hmmm…only three blogs, huh?  That might be a bit of a problem, but I’ll try to contain myself.

1. Lisa L. Regan – Okay, for those of you who already know me, this is a given.  After all, she’s my very best friend and confidant, my number one critique partner, and a fellow thriller writer.  And while Lisa is a fantastic agented writer with two books currently on submission, she also has a lot to offer other writers.  Both her new blog and web page are filled with juicy bits of wisdom as she’s journeyed farther than most of us toward publication.  And what’s more, and possibly most important, is the fact that both she and her agent, Jeanie Pantelakis of the Sullivan Maxx Literary Agency, have teamed up to host a variety of book contests with a reading of the winner’s full manuscript as the grand prize!  That’s right!  No querying needed.  Just enter the appropriate genre contest and you have a good chance of having her agent request your full manuscript.

2. Jennifer Hillier of The Serial Killer Files – I know Jenny is already well-known in the blogosphere, but if you haven’t trolled through her blog archives, you’re really missing something.  Not only has Jenny written a novel, she’s successfully landed an agent and sold her first book, Creep, which, I must say, I’ve read twice now and think it’s freakin’ fantastic!  I know I’m partial.  She’s also a fellow writer of psychological thrillers.  Her second novel, Freak, already sold, by the way, is due out sometime next year.  On a personal note, I’ve become personal friends with this lovely lady and I can’t say enough good things about her.  I owe her BIG TIME!  So here’s a tiny little bit of payback, Jenny!

3. Julie Musil – There’s a reason Julie has so many followers and that reason is wisdom.  I swear, every time I tune into her blog, she teaches me something new.  Her archives are a virtual treasure trove of valuable literary insight.  She shares tip after tip on her blog.  I’ve taken to copying each one and compiling into a file I call “Great Writing Advice.”  And what’s even better than all that, if that’s not enough already, is that Julie personally replies to every comment I make on her blog.  She cares and takes the time to reach out and touch her followers.  In a word, Julie is amazing!

See, I knew I couldn’t keep it to just 3.  But I’ll make this honorable mention brief…er.

4. Jami Gold – Now, I don’t know Jami like I know the ladies listed above, but what I do know is that this writer is smart as hell and gifted beyond all get-out.  Her posts hit on what every writer wants to know or really, really should know.  This gal does her research and delves deep into the issues that concern us writers the most.  And damn if she doesn’t manage pull shit out of me in my comments that I swore I would never talk about.  Like I said, it’s a gift.   

I love each and every blog I follow closely.  Why else would I list them on my blog roll?  If you’re a Pay It Forward Blogfest blogger who is new to my neck of the woods, scroll through the left sidebar of my blog.  They are all worth a look and a follow. 

Like me, once you follow them, they follow you right back.   

We Interrupt This Program...

            Monday is my normal day to post here, but I’m holding out ‘til Wednesday so I can participate in Alex Cavanaugh’s.Insecure Writers Support Group.  Today I just wanted to go over a few brief items.

            First off, did anyone catch Rachelle Gardner’s post today About Author Platform?  If not, I suggest you go check it out.  Then take a gander at those benchmark statistics for Facebook and blog followers and visits.  Yikes!  Really?  We should shoot for 500 Facebook fans and 15,000 monthly pageviews to our blogs?  Well, that all sounds good, and I’d certainly love to have those stats, but they seem a tad unrealistic for the majority of writers who blog, most of whom are still unpublished.  I’m jumping for joy to have 700 pageviews a month.  And maybe someday, when I am agented and on the road to being published, I will have an author page on Facebook, but right now I’m keeping my friends limited to around 125 or so.  Personally, I can’t manage much more than that and I won’t simply collect friends for the benefit of …well, collecting friends.  That seems a bit insincere to me.  All right, you can clearly see the insecure writer in me, huh?     

            Anyway, moving on…Alex Cavanaugh, along with Matthew MacNish at QQQE, have a new blogfest called the Pay It Forward Blogfest scheduled for October 14^th.  This blogfest is designed to help introduce us to the many other bloggers out there.  Here’s how Alex and Matthew describe it:  

“We want this to be an easy post that allows you to meet and follow as many other bloggers as you can. In your post, we would like you to please list, describe, and link to three blogs that you enjoy reading, but that you suspect may fly under the radar of a lot of other bloggers. Or they can be famous blogs, as long as they're awesome.

But don't stop there! Certainly visit and follow all the blogs that are featured in people's posts the day of the blogfest, but those don't have to be the only blogs you visit. You can visit everyone who enters in on the fun, and signs up on the linky list. In the interest of time you don't even have to leave comment. You can just follow, and come back another time.”    

            So go to either Matthew or Alex’s blogs linked above and sign up on the Linky List to get your blog listed in the blogfest then participate on October 14th.  This should be another good one!

            Lastly, I would love to thank all of my followers who commented on my post last week about blogging vs. writing vs. life.  It seems I really struck a chord common among writers who blog.  I know it’s helped me just to know I am not alone and that others feel the exact same way.  Well, that’s it for today.  I’ll be back on Wednesday with a post for Alex Cavanaugh’s.Insecure Writers Support Group

Blogging vs. Writing vs. Life

            I’ve been noticing a trend of late.  Quite a few of my Blogger friends, and others I follow, have cut back in their blogging.  Some were prolific bloggers who just couldn’t (or didn’t want to) keep up with posting every day.  Others were being forced into the meat grinder of nasty email replies and mean-spirited comments thus diminishing their spirit and prior enthusiasm for blogging.  A couple had book deals and deadlines that loomed overhead and so blogging was the furthest thing from their mind.  And still others were so absorbed into posting, and more importantly, commenting on their follower’s blogs that it left them little time to write themselves.  I fall into this last category.

            I’ve said quite a few times that I often find blogging tiresome.  It’s hard for me to find a unique topic that hasn’t been covered a thousand times in other writer blogs, and I’m pretty inexperienced so I don’t imagine that I would have enough to say of an educated nature when it came to writing or publishing.

It’s been nearly a year since I started my blog and in that time I’ve usually written about my own experiences and opinions about writing, querying, and trying to get published.  I’ve chosen not to write about my personal life or family unless it somehow related directly to my writing or blogging.  This makes the material I want to write about limited.  I’ve cut down my posting to once a week, but even that seems difficult at times.  And all during the week, I worry about what I should post about next.  It’s sucking the life and enjoyment I experience when writing.    

            Right now, I’m in the process of starting my next project, my new novel.  When I wrote my first novel, The Mistaken, I had no distractions whatsoever.  I wasn’t writing to get published.  I didn’t know I even wanted to write an entire novel, let alone try to get published.  I just knew I had this story that wanted to get out.  So I wrote.  Everyday.  For three months.  First on my outline then the story itself.  It was intensely pleasurable.  And when I was done, I was excited to take the next step.  That’s when I read that writers need to have a platform.

I wasn’t even sure what that meant, but I started my blog as a means of creating a presence, but it immediately started to feel like a popularity contest.  I felt like I was back in my all-girls Catholic high school filled with rich kids who drove BMWs and Mercedes while I tooled around in my mother’s thirteen-year-old faux-wood-paneled station wagon. 

I kept at it though and I made some great friends and even garnered a few followers of my own.  That felt good.  But part of having a presence, building a platform, is assembling an army of followers who are both interested in what you have to say and might even buy your book someday if you ever manage to get an agent who can sell it to a publisher. 

This army building takes time.  A lot of time.  And a lot effort.  You have to troll through all the blogs and make friends and leave comments.  I do this sporadically and when I do, I tend to gain a few followers here and there.  I love that, seeing my follower count blip upward.  I love reading all the interesting things my friends have to say, and they say it all so much more eloquently than I.  But all this worrying and reading and commenting has taken away time from what I really want to do:  write another novel. 

I want to go back to the days when I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning and sit at my computer and type.  I want to allow myself time to focus on my idea, to transform my premise into a plot with struggle and conflict.  Most all of my Blogger friends have regular day jobs and families to care for.  I don’t how they do it, work all day, come home and take care of the family then find time to develop an idea and write about it. 

Now, I have my own design company, but because of the economy, work has been limited.  Lately, however, I have had a near-constant stream of work to see to, deadlines to meet, clients to make happy.  I also have a sixteen-year-old son who is preparing for his last SAT this Saturday, which is also the day when all the college applications open up for Fall admission.  Yes, I know this is something that he should be doing on his own, but I will help him in every way possible. 

Trying to fit in time to write on my new project has fallen victim to all of this:  to querying agents, to keeping up with my friend’s blogs, to helping my son with his college preparation, to work.  It’s a difficult distraction and I’m frustrated that I can’t find the time to do it all, especially write my novel. 

Though I do understand how important it is to build a platform, I think it’s even more important to focus on the work, the writing.  If, by some miracle, I do land an agent, I want to show that I have more than one book in me, that I’m serious about this new career.  If that agent happens to get a publisher’s interest, I want to show that I’m worthy of a two-book deal or better.  And I don’t want to worry about that second book.  I want to know that it’s well developed and coming along before I have to focus back on revising the first book. 

Most importantly, though I love my first book and think (and hope) it’s good enough to publish, it seems that most writers don’t publish their first novel.  They chalk it up to time well spent learning the craft and gaining experience.  So I have to have another in the pipeline.  I can’t imagine ever being so in love with any other characters as I am with those in my first novel, but I am hoping to have a similar experience with this second one, so who knows, maybe it will be better and I will fall even more in love with them. 

I think most of the writers I’ve come to love have only gotten better as they’ve written more.  I certainly know all the rules now, whereas I didn’t the first time around.  But I know my limitations, and in order for me to write the best story possible, I need to focus.  This might mean I don’t come around as often to comment.  It certainly means I might not be posting as often.  And I know I won’t likely be recruiting any new followers. 

Something’s gotta give.  It can’t be my son, and I need the money so it won’t be the occasional work.  But what am I gonna do?  I gotta write.

So I ask you, how do you mange to write your WIP, work your day job, take care of the family, and still have the time, energy, and commitment to blog?                             

Last of the Summer Fluff: The 7x7 Link Award

            Oh boy, I almost forgot to post about this.  It seems I missed so much while I was away, like Rachael Harrie’s Writers Platform Building Campaign.  I did manage to sign up for one of her groups, but since I missed the deadline, it didn’t work out.  My loss, for sure.

            Something else I forgot about was this little award I received from my BFF, Lisa Regan.  She got this little thing called The 7x7 Link Award and passed it along to me.  Now, I told myself I wasn’t going to do these things anymore, but since I have one more short trip this week before my summer is officially over, I thought I’d allow myself one last hurrah.

For this award, I’m supposed to categorically list my best blog posts:  Most Beautiful, Most Helpful, Most Popular, Most Controversial, Most Surprisingly Successful, Most Underrated, and Most Pride-worthy.  I only have about fifty posts to choose from, but I’ll do my best. 

So here it goes:

1.                  Most Popular:

Definitely “Stories Don’t Happen in a Vacuum” which has to do with backstory in a query letter.  It struck a chord with a lot of people back when I wrote it, but that post still gets 12 hits a day on average for whatever reason.

2.                  Most Beautiful:

This is a toss-up between “Finding My Book’s Theme:  Forgiveness” which deals with how my book’s theme relates to me personally, or “The Puzzle” which explains why I started to write my book in the first place.

3.                  Most Controversial:

Grading on content, I think this would have to be “To Prologue or Not” which asks whether I should I include my 250 word intro as a prologue.  People have diverse opinions about prologues, as do agents.  I’m still up in the air, but have included it with my three recent requests from agents. 

4.                  Most Helpful:

 Well, I’m not sure that this post was helpful to anyone else, but my “Gearin’ Up to Get Agent Blogfest Week 1” post garnered me so much helpful information that I rewrote my query into what I believe is my best one yet.

5.                  Most Surprisingly Successful:

That’s an easy one; it’s “Networking, Blogging and Other Fluff.”  While this post was over 1,800 words, it garnered me the most comments, I think because it struck a chord with so many of you writer/bloggers out there who are struggling to make connections with other writer/bloggers and have found camaraderie here within the Blogger ranks.

6.                  Most Under-Rated:

I guess it would have to be “My Thoughts On Writing vs. Publishing” which explains why, though I love writing for its own sake, I am so driven to find and land an agent and have my book traditionally published. 

7.                  Most Pride-Worthy:

I think I have two that qualify here.  The first is “Everyone Needs a Champion” where I speak of those few people who have helped me get through the most difficult periods in my life during this journey toward publication.  The other is “How I Was Saved” which is similar and tells how my friend, Lisa, kept me going.

Now for those I’d like to bestow this award upon:

Tara at More Than Fiction (Yes, Tara, both Lisa and I have requested your participation!)

Robin at Robin Weeks because I find her fascinating and brilliant!

Lora at Lora  Rivera Inside Writing because she’s talented and always writes about writing.

Joylene at Joylene Nowell Butler, Author because she’s a fellow thriller writer and published, too.

Hektor at Hektor Karl because he’s interesting and loves dogs!  You can’t get much better than that.  Well, okay, he’s very handsome, too!

People I’d love to see participate but am too much of a weenie to ask:

Alex at Alex J. Cavanaugh because EVERYONE loves Alex and I think he’s totally cool!

Julie at Julie Musil because she is chock full of fantastic writing advice.

Lynda R. Young at W.I.P. It because she’s wise and smart and gives great writing advice.

Now, I’m off to Portland to spend hours and hours at Powell’s City of Books.  Have any of you ever been there?  It's the largest book store in the world, taking up an entire city block, and is full of new and used books, any title you can imagine.  In other words:  HEAVEN!    

100 Followers! Happy Dance Time!

            I thought I would bury this post on a Sunday since, statistically speaking, not many read over the weekend, but…WAHOO!  I just turned over 100 followers!  I never thought that would happen in a million years.  I must say, I am grateful for each and every one of you, and I promise to keep writing and posting articles on writing and publishing that will hopefully keep your interest.  Thanks again to all of you!    

Going on Hiatus for the Great California College Tour

            First, I’d like to say how thankful I am for all your support during the last week.  I’m blown away by the fact that so many of you read my entire last post, as long as it was.  I received more comments than ever, so I think I must have struck a chord.  Several of my friends here on Blogger ran similar posts about blogging and what it’s meant for them.  Some have reassessed the amount of time they devote to blogging so they can get back to the real reason they are even here in the first place:  writing their novel.

Yes, blogging takes a great deal of time, not just writing an interesting post, but also devoting time to your loyal followers.  After all, we’d be next to nothing without them.  I’ve been a tad neglectful of my own for the last week and for that, I apologize.  Some of you know why, but most do not, and, frankly, I’m a bit leery of sharing the reason outright for fear I will jinx myself.  It’s happened before, God knows.  I open my mouth in excitement and the next thing I know, devastating disappointment.  So I’ve learned not to get my hopes up and I truly don’t think anything will come of it this time around either, but I can’t help but be hopeful.  To that effect, I need a diversion to get my mind off things.  Lucky for me, I already have just the thing.

You see, my sixteen-year-old son and I are leaving in two days for what we call The Great California College Tour.  In one year, he will be off to college.  He hates it here in Western Washington.  Can’t say I blame him.  It rains a lot here in Seattle.  And I mean A LOT!  When it’s not raining, it’s usually cloudy and way too cold for our tastes.  We are, after all, from sunny, warm California, and my son dearly wants to return there to attend college.  So for the last fourteen days of August, we will be touring twelve universities, from San Diego to Santa Rosa.  That’s 12 colleges in 14 days, plus a family wedding.  YIKES!

Needless to say, I will be very busy and so I’ll likely not have any time to write or post here.  I suppose I could use the time to re-energize my blog writing, come up with some new and interesting topics.  I’ve been quite distracted lately with blogfests, awards and such, what I lovingly call fluff.  I think it’s time I get back to some serious writing.

I’ve also completely finished my last novel.  That’s right, I finally no longer feel the need to revise, at least not until I hear back from a few gatekeepers.  Fingers crossed they even give me feedback.  That’s all I’m really hoping for at this point.  But this time away will be a much needed distraction so I can regroup and focus on my next book.  I hope to do some character sketches and work on my outline.  Unfortunately, I don’t feel the same inspiration this time around like I did with my first novel.  Nobody’s whispering in my ear this time, so that means this will be work.  That scares me. 

I might write a few posts on our college tour progress, maybe post a few pictures of the beautiful campuses we will be visiting, that is if I can figure out how to upload remotely.  In the mean time, I will do my best to visit you all from time to time, post a comment or two when I can.  But please know that if I do not, it’s only because I am devoting all of my time to helping my son make the most important decision of his young life thus far.  I can honestly say I will miss blogging.  As much of a chore as I’ve always thought of it, it’s also been the one way in which I reach out and connect with others like myself.  That has meant more to me than any of you will ever know.  Thanks for that, and I hope you come back and visit with me again after my hiatus.  God bless you all!                     

Networking, Blogging and Other Fluff

(Disclaimer:  I apologize up front for this brutally long post,

but I had a lot to say.)

It’s four in the morning and I can’t sleep.  That’s not to say I didn’t get a couple hours of shut eye early on, because I did, but then I got all hot and rolled over and I let my mind sift through a few things from the day before and wham, there was no going back to dream land.  It wasn’t entirely unexpected.  Yesterday was a big day for me and I was still running on its fumes.  More importantly, three different things happened to me yesterday that, at first, seemed totally unrelated, but when I lay in bed, unable to shut my mind off from yesterday’s excitement, I realized that these three events were all, in fact, closely related.

            I will take these events out of order.  First, I received an email from a friend, someone I met online last year, someone who was like my third or fourth follower back when I was a newb.  I ‘ve gotten to know her relatively well through her blog postings and her comments on my posts.  She even recently asked me to critique some of her first chapters of her WIP, which I consider to be a real honor because she immensely talented.  Anyway, she wrote me and asked if I thought blogging was a waste of time, aside from meeting new people I like.  She said she didn’t quite see the purpose of it.  Well, even though I was in the middle of an important revision, I felt the need to write her a quick note because I do, indeed, think blogging is worth it.

            See, I wrote a book last year and I didn’t know the first thing about writing.  So when I was done with my first draft, I jumped online and started researching all those things we writers research when we’ve written a book, like how to format, how to query, building a platform, and finding critique partners.  This brought me to Nathan Bransford’s website where I garnered all sorts of delicious facts and tidbits on all things writing.  More important, I posted a notice in one of his forums asking for a critique partner.  That’s how I found Lisa Regan. 

            Lisa and I started working closely together, critiquing each other’s manuscripts and a true and wonderful friendship was born.  This was also about the time I started my blog.  I didn’t know the first thing about blogging and, frankly, I found it a real chore, but I kept on finding something new to post about and every time I did, Lisa was there to cheer me on.  Then I managed to sneak a new follower in every once in awhile, which inspired me to keep moving forward.  During all this time, I was trolling the blogosphere and meeting new writer friends.

At times, my motive was not entirely pure.  I was feeling rather unpopular and felt the need to swell my follower army just to feel halfway good about my progress, but I wasn’t always a good follower myself.  So I started focusing on making connections instead of collecting friends.  Once I did that, I stopped being consumed with my stats, how many hits I was getting or followers I was adding.  I must admit, I’m still a comment whore.  I can’t help it.  I simply love to receive comments from people, whether they follow me or not, because it feels like I’m truly connecting with someone.  And that’s what I love most.

Part of the reason I even wrote a book was because I was lonely and bored.  I had moved to a new town, one I didn’t particularly fit in well with, where it was difficult to crack into the established cliques and make friends.  So when I made these connections through the blogs, whether it was through mine or someone else’s, it really felt like I had made a friend.  And while I usually kept my two social networks separate—Blogger and Facebook—I started pulling a few of my Blogger friends into my Facebook realm, which is much more personal.  That meant within Blogger, I had started meeting and connecting with a few folks on a very personal level.  I was feeling rather fulfilled. 

But more than fulfillment, these connections were actually helping me both be a better writer and advancing my career.  While ultimately nothing came of it, Lisa did refer me to her agent so I had a chance at pitching my novel to an honest to God gatekeeper.  Alas, that was probably eight months before my manuscript was really ready to be pitched, but good or bad, I learned a lot.  And I was eternally grateful to Lisa for believing in me and giving me that chance.

I recently met another wonderful writer, (God, I want to say her name, but that might not be cool with her so…) one who was further on her journey than just about anyone else I’d met so far.  She was both agented and under contract with a publisher and her book was just about to hit the shelves.  I was thrilled to have met her.  She was friendly and knowledgeable, and did I mention friendly?  Yeah, I really liked her.  Then I won a copy of her book.  Now this wasn’t the first time I’d won a copy of someone’s book, but I felt a real connection with her since she, like me and Lisa, wrote adult thrillers.  Better yet, she lived only about an hour or so away from me.  And better still, she was relatively new to the area and understood my difficulties with making friends in a community where the weather was so bad, folks just can’t stand out on the street and chat much with their neighbors.

After receiving her book, we emailed a few times and decided to meet in person and have lunch.  That was a bout the best damn lunch date ever!  I loved hearing all about how she wrote and polished her book, how she queried and landed her agent, and all the interesting things that go into obtaining and negotiating a publishing contract.  It was like meeting my idol and I wanted to be just like her, in a professional sense that is.

I dream about little else other than landing an agent and someday being published.  I’m sure she realized this and graciously referred me to her agent, letting me know she was cool with me dropping her name, if need be.  (Boy, did I ever!)  That was another toenail in the door, my second.  So, even though I was on query hiatus until September, with my friend egging me on, I jumped right on that and queried her agent that very day using what I like to call my new and improved Robin Query, aptly named after Robin Weeks, who critiqued my query during a contest in July.

That was Monday, two days ago.  Now, I don’t want to go into all the details, but things are looking up for me, at least today.  While I have no illusions, I am hopeful.

My point to all this is that blogging has put me in touch with some wonderful people, people who have helped me polish my novel, who’ve taught me how to writer better, who’ve inspired me to write a better query, and who’ve helped me make connections that ultimately got my book out there under the noses of those who matter.  Most importantly, I’ve met people who keep me moving forward, even in the face of repeated devastating rejection.  Simply put, I could not do this without my friends and followers here on Blogger.  So is it worth it?  You bet it is!

I did mention three things, didn’t I?  Well, the third was a blog award I received from Nicole Pyles over at The World of My Imagination.  Thank you, Nicole!  This is further proof that blogging is worth the time and effort.  Awards like these introduce bloggers and bring them new followers, always a nice thing! 

This is the third award I’ve received recently and I am most honored.  I must admit though that I feel like I’ve been neglecting my writerly duties since accepting my first award and participating in blogfests and penty memes and such, which is probably why I’m burying this at the end of a way-too-long blog post, but I do want to thank Nicole and do my duty as a recipient.  Having said that, other than supposedly being “versatile,” I’m not quite sure what this award is for, but here are the rules:

1.      Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them (check)

2.      Share seven things about yourself  (ugh!)

3.      Pass this award onto other recently discovered blogs.  (see below)

Seven things, huh?  Okay, here goes:

1.      I live in a town I can’t stand filled with rich snobby people, but it’s so beautiful here I just can’t make myself leave…yet!

2.      I am an interior designer who has no formal training in creative writing, but I love to do it just the same, and I don’t think I’m half bad.  Of, course, I’m probably not half good either. 

3.      I have two dogs, Jack, a Malamute, and Maleah, a Husky, and they are two of my very best friends who manage to keep me sane with their unconditional love.

4.      I miss California, especially San Francisco, since moving here nearly 7 years ago.  

5.      I’ve never actually met my very best friend in person.  She lives nearly 3000 miles away and we “chat” nearly everyday via email, Facebook, or texting.

6.      I’ve been with the same man for over 28 years, married over 20 of those, and have been gifted with an intelligent, articulate, ambitious son who brings me joy every day.

7.      And in one week, my 16 year-old son and I are leaving for a 2-week long College Road Tour Trip back to California.  I’m exhausted already just planning it!        

Now for the passing of the torch:  I’m going to mention some blogs I haven’t awarded or highlighted before since we all need a little recognition to help swell our armies.

1.      McKenzie McCann of The Ubiquitous Perspective because she is a smart, sassy teenager who knows entirely too much.

2.      The East Coaster at Published in a Year because she’s ambitious as hell.  Have you seen how many WIPs she has?  Like five!

3.      An Alleged Author because she’s a great supporter and this is one award she hasn’t received yet!

4.      Robin Weeks because she rocks!  I just love her.  She gives great advice, and did I mention she helped me write a kickass query?  Yeah, baby!

5.       Kimberly Krey at The Write View because I just dig her blog.

Whew, over 1800 words, that’s a record!  Thanks for your patience!