The I Miss You Blogfest...and More!

Welcome to the I Miss You Blogfest,

hosted by

Alex J. Cavanaugh, Matthew MacNish, and Andrew Leon

Here’s the rundown:

The bloggers we really miss…
and the ones we would really miss!

Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished? Now is your chance to show your appreciation and spotlight them!

On November 16, list one to three bloggers you really miss and one to three bloggers you would miss if they stopped blogging. Then go leave a comment on those blogs.

Our blogger friends are special – time to let them know! 

I only blog on Mondays, my day to post and make the rounds, but there are a couple of blogs I visit every day or every day I know there’ll be a new post.  And while I follow and love so many blogs, and most of them are active, there are a couple of bloggers who don’t post as much as I would like.

First, two I miss because they don’t post as often as they used to:

Jennifer Hillier at The Serial Killer Files – Jenny’s a big time author now with two incredibly popular books, her 2011 debut, Creep, and this year’s follow-up, Freak, plus she’s working on a new novel, so it’s no wonder she doesn’t post as often.  But I really, really miss her, especially since she moved away from Seattle almost a year ago.  Lucky for me, we chat via text, email, Facebook, and phone calls so I never truly lose touch.

Janet Reid’s Query Shark – Yes, I know, Ms. Reid has her own regular blog here, but I really love Query Shark.  I’ve learned so much from that blog.  But she hasn’t posted since September 30^th, and for months before that, her posts were sporadic, at best.  I miss waking up on Sunday mornings and tuning in to read how The Shark has ripped to shreds yet another query written and submitted by someone who’s failed to read all the other queries, as directed.  Better still, I miss those few queries that hit it spot on the very first time, even when they break all the rules—like the query for Josin Mcquein’s Premeditated.  I realize I’m past this query stage, but I still learn a lot from reading them. 

Which brings me to a blog I would miss if it were to ever disappear:  In fact, when this blogger took a short break earlier this year, I found out just how much I did miss it.  And him.  And that blogger is…

Matthew MacNish at The QQQE or The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment – Much like Janet Reid, Matt has serious skills when it comes to dissecting and analyzing queries and determining what works and what doesn’t then suggesting ways in which to fix it.  So if you have a query you are thinking of submitting to agents, send it to Matt first.  The man knows what he’s talking about.  And his commenters help a lot, too.

And finally, the one blog I never, and I mean NEVER, EVER miss, is your friend and mine…

Alex J. Cavanaugh - There are very few bloggers out there who are as consistently and truly inspiring, relentlessly selfless, and remarkably entertaining as Alex.  He is the highlight of my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.  In fact, I typically read his posts before I even get out of bed in the morning.  So if Alex’s blog were to ever cease to exist, I would be crushed.  He is a lesson to us all on how to be humble and pay it forward.  And what's more, I've met most of my Blogger friends through Alex, so he's kind of a matchmaker of sorts.  Many thanks and cheers to you, Alex!

With less than 3 weeks until the December 6^th launch of Lisa Regan’s debut novel, I’d like to share with you her book trailer for Finding Claire Fletcher.  So without further ado…

    

Book Giveaway, Alex's Awesome Surprise, & the IWSG

Today is the first Wednesday of the month, time for

Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group

But first…the results for my blog tour book giveaway!

There were 76 entries total, way more than I anticipated.  My thanks to all for dropping by and commenting during my tour.  Your support means everything to me! 

All right then, I wrote down the names of every follower who commented, assigned each a number, then used Random.org to generate the winning numbers, starting first with the runner-ups.

Those five runner-up winners of an ebook copy of The Mistaken are:

#18      Samantha May

#52      Chris Fries

#48      Klahanie

#38      L. Diane Wolfe

#64      Emily R. King

And the grand prize winner of my last signed ARC of The Mistaken is:

#66      Julie Luek

Winners, please contact me at acadia1997@msn.com

so I can get your info and send out your prize.

One more thing before my brief IWSG post:

Did you happen to see Alex J. Cavanaugh’s post last Monday?  Alex is one of three published authors who “blurbed” for my book.  His name and quote appear on the very first page along with Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep and Freak and New York Times bestselling author, Kevin O’Brien.

Alex said, “That’s even more exciting than my name on the cover of my own books.”  I sent him a signed copy with a nice little note of thanks for both his blurb and for being the driving force behind my blog tour and helping me every step of the way.  I could not have done it without him!

THANK YOU SO MUCH, ALEX!!

Okay, so now that I’ve accomplished my goal and have published my debut novel, I find myself worrying more than I ever thought I would.  Sure, I told myself it really didn’t matter how well my book sold.  I just wanted to get it out there.  But yeah, it kinda doesn’t work that way, at least, not in my mind. 

I want people to read it.  And I want those who do to love it, or at least like it, even just a little bit.  But more than anything, I want readers to rate/review it on Amazon and Goodreads.  So now I have a whole new slew of things to worry about:  Is it selling, will they like it, and will they spread the word?  It’s really way too early in the game for me to be obsessing over these things.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint.  Still, it’s there.  *sigh*

But oooh, look!  I have 499 GFC followers!

Maybe I’ll do another ebook giveaway once I reach 500. 

  

Any suggestions on how to do that one?

THE MISTAKEN Blog Tour: Day Eleven

Happy Halloween!  It’s Day 11, and I’m so close to the end, I can taste it.

I’m feeling a little ragged around the edges.  Can you tell?

Today is another important guest post for me.  I’m over at my very good friend, Jennifer Hillier’s The Serial Killer Files where I’ve written about something Jenny and I know very well:  Villains!  Yummy stuff!  I first met Jenny when I won a signed copy of her debut novel, Creep.  When we discovered we lived near each other, we decided to meet for coffee, then lunch, then dinner and drinks, and we became fast friends.  Unfortunately for me, Jenny moved from Seattle back to Toronto last December, but we recently reunited in Cleveland for a fun-filled week at Bouchercon where I was able to get her to sign her second novel, Freak.  Now I have a matched pair!  Yippee!      

In case you forgot, every follower who comments here during my tour will be entered into a drawing for an ARC of The Mistaken and a bookmark.  Plus, 5 runner-up winners will each receive an ebook copy.  Winners will be determined using Random.org and notified via email.   

Tomorrow on Day 12, I’ll be over at Angela Orlowski-Peart’s new site where she’s hosting my synopsis, an excerpt, my bio, and a bunch of other things.  In addition, I’ll also be over at Livia Peterson’s Leave It to Livia where I discuss the importance of building a platform in publishing.

__________

THE MISTAKEN  ~  the hell of revenge, the hope of redemption

Available at:
Kindle   Barnes and Noble   Nook   Amazon   Kobo   iBooks

Coming soon to Sony, Diesel Bookstore, and Baker & Taylor.

Remaining stops on The Mistaken Blog Tour:

10/31:  Jennifer Hillier’s The Serial Killer Files

11/1:    Why building a platform is so important at Livia Peterson’s Leave It to Livia

            Another author spotlight and excerpt at Angela Orlowski-Peart’s

11/19:  Arlee Bird’s Tossing It Out for a follow-up on my launch and tour.

 So who are your favorite villains in literature? 

    

THE MISTAKEN Blog Tour: Day Ten

It’s Day 10, into the home stretch.  Yippee!
I sure hope you all are surviving Sandy in safety and good spirits.

Today is very special to me. I’m being interviewed by my very best friend in the whole world, fellow author and pub-sister, Lisa Regan.  I’ve posted about Lisa at least a dozen times, probably more.  We started as critique partners and became as close as sisters, best friends who email long letters to each other several times a week.  And that’s in addition to all the texting we do just about every day.  Most of you know by now that, although we’ve been best friends for two years, we only just met in person for the first time earlier this month at Bouchercon.  And while I’m grateful that we get to publish together and remain on this journey, side-by-side, more than anything, I’m so happy I met her, for not only has she made me a better writer, she’s enriched my life beyond my wildest dreams.  Don't miss Lisa's debut release, Finding Claire Fletcher coming from Sapphire Star Publishing on December 6th.

You can also find me over at Falling For Fiction today, where Hope Roberson asked me some questions and was kind enough to allow me a little shameless self-promotion.              

Who has impacted your writing life the most?

Remember, every follower who comments here during my tour will be entered into a drawing for an ARC of The Mistaken and a bookmark.  Plus, 5 runner-up winners will each receive an ebook copy.  Winners will be determined using Random.org and notified via email.    

Tomorrow on Day 11, my other bestie, author Jennifer Hillier at The Serial Killer Files where I’ll discuss villains.  Yeah, baby!

__________

THE MISTAKEN  ~  the hell of revenge, the hope of redemption

Available at:
Kindle   Barnes and Noble   Nook   Amazon   Kobo   iBooks

Coming soon to Sony, Diesel Bookstore, and Baker & Taylor.

Next stops on The Mistaken Blog Tour:

10/30:  Learn why I chose the Russian mafia as my antagonists over at Lisa Regan’s

           Find out more about where I live at Falling For Fiction

10/31   My thoughts on villains over at Jennifer Hillier's The Serial Killer Files

11/1:    Why building a platform is so important at Livia Peterson’s Leave It to Livia

            Another author spotlight and excerpt at Angela Orlowski-Peart’s

11/19:  Arlee Bird’s Tossing It Out for a follow-up on my launch and tour.

And look at this!  I'm in damn good company over at Mark Koopmans' place!

  

Bouchercon 2012

Wow!  That’s about all I can say right now.  I’m sitting at a crowded gate at the Cleveland airport, trying to find a way to sum up Bouchercon 2012, my first ever writer’s conference.  But seriously, B-con was so much more than that. 

It wasn’t just a convention for writers and authors, but for readers and fans of all types of crime fiction, as well.  So while I was in absolute heaven being surrounded by other writers who truly understood me and my passion for writing and my genre, and I learned an incredible amount of information at the panels, I also had the opportunity to chat and socialize with the very people who might buy my book when it “hits the stands” next week.

But before I get into all that, let me first fill you in on the personal side of this big excursion.  As most of you already know, I was planning to meet my bff, Lisa Regan, in person for the very first time.  She didn’t get there until my second day, so I met my other bestie first, Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep and Freak.

Jenny and I

I hadn’t seen Jenny since she moved from my neck of the woods last December.  Though she was suffering from some back pain, she managed to make the trip, and we had a grand time catching up, eating and drinking, and attending panels.  And when Lisa finally arrived, Jenny was there to capture it all on video.  But that’s a private moment I’m keeping to myself right now. I do, however, have a couple of photos Jenny took.

Lisa and I

The three of us spent no small amount of time partying it up at The Renaissance.  This newly renovated hotel, a grand dame dating back to1915, was opulent and conveniently located at Tower City, another beautifully revitalized structure also housing The Ritz Carlton, an entire shopping mall, food court, and cinemas, plus the RTA or local rapid transit train, which delivered me from the airport for only $2.  Everything we could ever want was right at our doorstep.  We never even had to venture outside. 

Me, Lisa, and Jenny

The Renaissance at Tower City at night

...and in the morning

The grand lobby staircase

Tower City entrance

The Renaissance lobby fountain

The street view out our room window at The Renaissance

But, of course, we did since the opening ceremony took place at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  That was a fun event with wine, beer, and hors d’oeuvres.  Best of all, it was emceed by famed master author, John Connolly.  We did have an incident where a close-talking stalker fan latched on to Lisa, but we managed to shake him, thank God.  Then it was back to the hotel bar for a nightcap where we were constantly surrounded by famous authors like Lee Child and Chelsea Cain.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Lisa, me, and Jenny out front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Author John Connolly was quite the comedian emcee

Inside the reception hall at the museum

Author Charlaine Harris of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries (True Blood)

Jenny and  Chelsea Cain

Author Will Lavender and Jenny

Friday and Saturday were again chock full of wonderful panels.  They were moderated and debated by panelists such as John Connolly, Chelsea Cane, Charlaine Harris, Linwood Barclay, and countless other rock stars of the genre and industry. I learned more than I ever thought possible on subjects such as morally challenged heroes, adapting novels into movies and television, crafting thrillers, character development, avoiding the unbelievable, and serial killers, the last of which was paneled by Jenny herself.  And all that barely scratched the surface.   

I met so many wonderful people, especially other writers and a few debut authors like myself.  One in particular was Mark Pryor, a friend of both Lisa and Jenny and author of The Bookseller, launching tomorrow, Tuesday, October 9^th from Seventh Street Books and As She Lay Sleeping, true crime from New Horizon Press and already available on Amazon.  I found Mark incredibly charming as he spent an entire evening regaling a group of us women with stories of his job as a prosecuting attorney in Austin, Texas.  

Mark, Lisa, and I were all on the New Authors panel where we were unexpectedly instructed to stand before the crowd and speak about ourselves and our books.  And although it was intimidating as hell, the moderator, legendary author Val McDermid, was so hilarious, she put us all at ease as we belly-laughed at her early morning Scottish humor.  

 Val McDermid

Lisa and I after our New Authors panel

At the Museum party, we met a group of women—readers and librarians from Lisa’s neighborhood in Philly—and just like so many of the attending fans, they were thrilled to learn that Lisa and I were launching books this year and were anxious to read and possibly share them.  How cool is THAT?!!

Seriously, Even though Jenny was wracked up and I had some weird eye infection the whole time, we had a blast, and I could go on and on about how wonderful and fulfilling this trip was, but with all I have to say, it would take 5000 words, at least, and to be honest, I drank more alcohol in last 4 days than I have in the last 4 months, so I’m a tad exhausted what with getting up everyday before 6am.  But I know so many of you were cheering me on here and on Facebook and Twitter, so I at least wanted to give you a glimpse into the most spectacularly fun 5 days of my life!

Have you ever been to a writer's conference like this?  

All Kinds of Wonderful!

Short post for me today.  Hey, did I just hear a cumulative sigh of relief?  Ha ha, no worries.  I’m swamped with all kinds of wonderful right now. 

On Wednesday, I leave for BoucherCon, my first-ever writer’s conference, though, to be honest, it’s way more than that.  It’s for anyone who loves mystery and crime fiction, fans and writers alike.  Even better, I get to see one of my besties, Jennifer Hillier.  Sadly, she moved from here in Seattle back to Toronto last December and I haven’t seen her since, so I’m excited beyond words!  Happy dance time!

But as incredible as that is—and it is incredible—something even bigger is planned.  I finally, FINALLY get to meet, in person, my pub-sister, my most valued critique partner, my email buddy, and my very best friend and confidant, Lisa Regan.  We’ve been CPs for over two years now.  Without fail, we email long-ass letters to each other twice a week, with lots of little ones and texts in between.  So, hell yeah, this is going to be EPIC!!!  Be prepared for lots of pictures when I return.

Also exciting, starting today, I’m a judge for the Small Press Pitch portion of Deana Barnhart’s Gearing Up to Get an Agent Blogfest or GUTGAA, as we lovingly call it.  How cool is that? 

And, of course, since I’ll be gone and it’s the beginning of the month, I have to compose a little sump’m sump’m for Alex J. Cavanaugh’s IWSG on Wednesday.  And with all this wonderfulness, I simply have nothing to complain about, so I plan on writing something a bit lighter than usual.

That said, I’m happy to be buried in edits—my new day job—which, I must say, I love, love LOVE!  In addition to all that, my debut novel, The Mistaken, launches in less than three weeks, along with my whirlwind blog tour, so while I’m drowning in promo, I’m lovin’ every minute of it!  This is me with my head ready to spin right off my body! 

What about you…have you ever found yourself drowning in pure euphoria?     

  

       

Moving (check), Launch tour (check), Blogfest (check)...OYVEY!

This is not my normal Monday blog post, but there’s good reason for that.  This Friday, I will be flying my son down from Seattle to Arizona State University near Phoenix, and on Sunday, we’ll move him into his residence hall.  Yes, after 2 years of researching schools, college fairs and tours, applications, and essays, it’s all come down to this.  

May I say how stressed out I am, especially since I have to do it alone,

without my husband’s help?

 

Yeah. Super-über mondo-stressed.

Mind you, ASU is the largest public university in the entire US.  That’s nearly 70,000 students, most of whom attend the beautiful one-square-mile Tempe campus, where my son will be living.  So far, we’ve UPS’d one huge box down to his hall, at great cost, too.  The rest will be packed and fly with us. Thank God Southwest Airlines doesn’t charge for checked bags!  Needless to say, I’ve been a busy mama.  So while I don’t have the time to dwell over a thoughtful blog post, I do have time for a few announcements.  

First, my dear friend, Jennifer Hillier, has just released her second novel, Freak.  Though it stands alone on its own merits, it’s also a sequel to her debut novel, Creep, which came out last summer.  (I loved that book, by the way!)  I ordered a hard copy of Freak so Jenny can sign it when I see her at BoucherCon 2012 in October.  I was excited enough just to get my copy, but then I opened it up and saw that she had mentioned me in her acknowledgements.  Yes, more than a few tears sprang to my eyes.  Thank you, Jenny!

Second, after receiving another update from Goodreads, where I noticed one more add to another reader’s TBR list (thank you Lynda R. Young,) I saw that Lisa Regan had updated her review of my book, The Mistaken.  This update has a lot of depth and detail and is not simply a rehashed synopsis.  She shares what she loved most about my story and what she feels makes it special.  My humble thanks, Ms.Regan!  

Next, with my book’s release a short 2 months away, I’m frantically getting ready for my blog tour.  Besides the one arranged by Sapphire Star Publishing, (who, by the way, has a shiny new website) I have my own tour looming ahead.  That’s 15 guest posts and interviews I have to compose.  I’ve already written 10 of them, but I have 5 new additions that came up last week.  (Thanks to those of you who asked me to guest post.)  So yeah, I’m a bit swamped at the moment. 

I did, however, want to mention a couple of other events coming up, like Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Genre Favorites Blogfest on September 17, 2012.  One blogfest, four favorites!  Simply list your favorite genre of:  movie, music, books, and a guilty pleasure genre from any of the three categories!  Alex hosts the best parties, so if you want to participate and meet new people, click here for the latest info.  

Also, on Tuesday, August 21^st, my friend, neighbor, and fellow writer, Angela Orlowski-Peart, will reveal the cover for her new YA paranormal novel, Forged By Greed, set for release in September.  Angela will be my guest that day while we celebrate this important event.

And lastly, I’d like to thank Karen Elizabeth Brown for nominating me for the Liebster Award.  Though I’ve done this award before, it could use some updating, so I’ll try to post about it sometime in the near future. 

Whew!  Can I take a breath now?

Oh yeah, right…I have to go finish packing.

*sigh*

So what have you all been up to this summer?

Great Comments Award

Happy New Year once again, my friends!  Since January 4^th is the first Wednesday of the month and therefore saved for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group, I thought I’d use the beginning of the week to pass along an award Alex gave me his blog last December 5th. 

It’s the Great Comments Award, given to those who drop by and comment most frequently.  Now it’s my duty to pass along this award to some of my most dedicated follower-commenters.

This was a very difficult list to whittle down as I have a great many loyal commenters, but these are the folks whose names always pop up in my comments.  Of course, Alex is included on this list, but I didn’t want to bug him since he’s already received it.    So here goes:

1.                    Lisa Regan

2.                    Al Penwasser at PenwasserPlace

3.                    Jeff O’Handley – The Doubting Writer

4.                    Joylene Nowell Butler – The Cluculz Writer

5.                    Julie Kemp Pick – The Empty Nest Insider

6.                    Carrie Butler at So You’re a Writer

7.                    Jennifer Hillier of the Serial Killer Files

8.                    LailaKnight from the Untroubled Kingdom of Laila Knight

9.                    Donna K.Weaver at Weaving a Tale or Two

10.                Peggy Eddleman – Will Write for Cookies

11.                Lynda R Young at W.I.P. It

12.                Eva Gallant at Wrestling with Retirement

I could go on and on and on…

Please check these folks out and join their armies, if you haven’t already, because they make great followers and write awesome posts. 

And come on back by on Wednesday for my Insecure Writer’s Support Group post.  For once, I won’t bitching!  Imagine that!  

Happy New Year!

I'm not one who normally makes resolutions, but I do set goals, and the new year is always a good time to refocus back on those goals.  So here is what I hope to accomplish in 2012:

1. Finish my first novel already!  While I thought I was finished, since I haven't yet landed an agent, I figure I need to get a few more CPs and work out the last kinks before I start querying again in January.  Which brings me to my second goal…

2. Land an agent!  This is the most important goal for me in 2012, but it’s also the one least under my control.  There’s nothing more I can do except write a kickass query (check) and start emailing.  Which brings me to my third goal…

3. Complete the first draft of my second novel.  I’m so ready to get right on this one.  I have so much of the story worked out in my brain.  I’ll need to drum up an outline first then dive right in.  This time, I have several awesome CPs lined up from the word go, so hopefully, knowing what I know now, it’ll be a much smoother process the second time around.  If all goes well, or even if it doesn’t, I have one more goal…

4. Attend my first ever writer’s conference.  BoucherCon 2012, a convention for crime and thriller writers, is being held in Cleveland, Ohio October 4^th through the 7^th.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to attend this, for obvious reasons, of course, but also because I will finally get the chance to meet my BFF, Lisa Regan, in person.  And I’ll also get to reunite with another wonderful friend, Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep and the forthcoming Freak, who just days ago, moved away from the Seattle area, where I live, back to her native Toronto, Canada.  If I haven’t bagged an agent yet, I hope I get the opportunity to make a few pitches. 

So that’s it for me.  What about you?  Have you made any resolutions or goals for 2012?  

Whatever they are, I hope you reach them.

Have a happy and blessed New Year, my friends, and thank you for hanging out with  me in 2011!

Giving Thanks!

            I had another post planned for today, but since it’s a short week, I thought I’d take this time to share what I’m most thankful for instead, aside from my family. 

First off, thank you to all those who offered me advice on last week’s post.  It has helped me a great deal.  Even more thanks to Lora Rivera for suggesting The Poisonwood Bible in her comment, and to Julie Musil for her post on the book, Hate List.  Both recommendations have helped me decide on how to proceed with my WIP.

Then there’s you, my followers and fellow writer-bloggers.  As writers, we know this is a rather lonely avocation, but we feel pulled toward it regardless.  Lucky for our generation, we have the Internet and Blogger, or whatever service you use, to connect with folks you’d normally never have the opportunity to connect with.  But just because they’re there, doesn’t mean there is automatically a connection.  You have to work at it.  And it’s not always easy either.  So for what it’s worth, I’d like to say how grateful I am that you’ve all allowed me to make that connection with you.  I feel blessed to have so many other writers who are willing to share, teach, advise, or just talk with me.  What would have been lonely is now anything but.  So thank you!  I really don’t think I could do this without you.

            Within my group of online acquaintances, I’ve made quite a few honest-to-God friends, people who exchange manuscripts with me and others who enjoy exchanging emails.  There’s even one writer I get to interact with in person!  *GASP*  Her name is Jennifer Hillier.  I won a signed copy of her book, Creep, last summer and quickly became a fan, but what’s even more remarkable is that we actually became friends.

She lives an hour away, so from time to time, we meet up somewhere in the middle and have lunch and chat about all things writing.  Since the Seattle Puget Sound Area is not exactly the friendliest place on earth, I was grateful just to have a new friend, but even more so since she was a fellow writer, and even more because we write in the same genre, so we understand each other in ways others may not.  But alas, as is my luck, Jenny is moving back to her home town and country, Toronto, Canada.  This saddens me more than I can say, but I’m grateful just to have met her and feel privileged to call her my friend.  That won’t change just because she’s moving away.

(God, I wish I had a picture of us together!)

            Last, but certainly not least, I am eternally grateful to God for bringing Lisa Regan  into my life.  Sure, she is a fellow writer, and even writes in the same genre, but what we share is so much more intense and profound than just our writing.  We share our lives, the nitty gritty, the happiest of moments, and everything in between.  Yes, it began as a critiquing partnership and I can honestly say we have helped each other become better writers, but even though we’ve never actually met in person, Lisa knows me better than just about any human being on the face of the earth, save my husband.  Then again, she knows things even he does not.  *Shhh*  I know I couldn’t have survived the insanity that is my life without her.  I love her like an identical twin sister.

            So for you, my followers and fellow writers, for Jenny and for Lisa, I am incredibly thankful and I want the world, or anyone who is interested anyway, to know just how much.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MY FRIENDS!

              

IWSG: Dreams vs. Expectations

Today is another entry in

Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group

            I’ve been following a common thread lately in some of my favorite blogs.  It expands on an ideal most writers postulate:  Getting published will make me happy.  What’s not to believe about this statement?  This is our ultimate goal, is it not?  We write.  We edit.  We query.  We submit.  We get published…maybe.  We know the road is laced with potholes of disappointment, but we believe in ourselves and our stories, so we carry on. 

Keep the dream alive!  Yeah!!

            But what if the dream is not what we expect it to be?  I first pondered this a few weeks ago after having lunch with my friend, Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep.  Not only do I hold Jenny in high esteem for her talent and skill, she is someone I relate to on a personal level.  We’re both women writers who write similar stories in the same genre, and we live near each other, so we chat about writing and blogging and books and all that sort of thing. 

            At the time of our most recent lunch date, Jenny was in the final throes of her last edit before sending her latest manuscript, Freak, off to her agent and editor.  She expressed what a brutally difficult experience it was, nothing like the first time when she wrote Creep.  She lamented that it would never be as enjoyable as it was that first time around.  She was under contract now and had deadlines and expectations to meet.  As I listened to her, I couldn’t help but think of that old adage, “Be careful what you wish for.  You just might get it!”

            Then on October 17^th, Natalie Whipple wrote a blog post she called Smelling the Roses. Or Whatever wherein she bemoaned how obsessed she had been over the last five years with getting published.  More than merely driven, but rather “maybe more like desperate,” she wrote.  She said she had put all her “feelings of self-worth into publishing” and she “would never, ever be happy if I didn't sell a book.”  Then, almost immediately, Natalie said that selling her book, Transparent, didn’t make her happy after all.  It seems that publishing wasn’t all she had expected it to be, that in the end, it’s really all about the writing—the book itself—not the publishing of it. 

            On Tuesday (November 1^st), Rachelle Gardner wrote a post called Writing Ain’t Easy.  In it, she wrote about one of her less-experienced writer friends who wondered if her “lack of confidence would dissipate as she gets more experienced in writing,” to which another, more experienced writer friend replied, “The complete lack of confidence will likely persist and even become worse as you progress.”

So, in other words, unlike most jobs where people become better and more comfortable the longer they perform their tasks, writing will always be difficult.  It will always be rife with insecurities and self-doubt.  Even my blogger friend Joylene Nowell Butler commented on my Bad News Isn’t Always a Bad Thing post last week, saying, “One day there is that sale, and while you believe wholeheartedly that your life is about to change forever, it's not in the way you think.” 

I’m getting the message that having my book published might not live up to my lofty expectations.  It might not make me feel any better as a writer.  It might not make me feel successful.  And, in and of itself, it might not be what makes me happy.  Writers who have had the same dreams that I have, and who have achieved them, now tell me it only gets harder, and I might not ever feel what it is I want to feel when I’m done.

But I suppose writing is like anything else.  When we reach our goal, we bask in our success for a short time then move on to something else, a new thing that will challenge us, that we can enjoy for the sheer effort.  Being totally satisfied means not having the need to accomplish something else.  Well, that’s not me.  I am many things, but static is not one of them.  So maybe I’m a bit jaded now, but at least I know what to expect.  Or what not to expect anyway.