Coming Back to Life

I've been thinking a lot lately about what exactly I want this blog to be, along with doing a lot of related searching about what I want my life to look like.

Common sense and modern wisdom both support the idea of finding that one thing, that one niche, that one passion, and working the hell out of it. "You can't possibly be successful if you don't commit to one thing!" the collective voices cry.

The thing is, I'm not "just a writer," and I'll never be 100% focused on the pure act of converting individual words into stories, articles, and other forms of content. There's so much more going on that fills out the shape of my life, and it's hard to discuss myself and my thoughts without sharing some of it.

With that being said, here's what's new:

I have a new love in my life, and even though she isn't technically "alive," she certainly brings a light to my life! Meet Elena:

She's an Epiphone LP-100 Les Paul Electric Guitar in Heritage Cherryburst, and she's a great beginner's tool. Although I've been playing guitar on and off for about ten years now, this is my first electric, and I'm super thrilled to call her mine.

Also, I'm working on an awesome new project, and in the process, actually paying people to write for once! (Instead of the other way around). I'll discuss this in more detail soon, but if you want a sneak peek, head over to the writing submissions page for the site I'm putting together.

Of course, writing will always be a part of my life, and I'll continue to share my writerly thoughts here. For example, here's an article I recently wrote for Writers Weekly, a terrific publication and email newsletter provided by Angela Hoy and designed to help freelance writers and self-publishers succeed:

Leveraging Humor to Develop Your Freelance Writing

Taking The Plunge - Submission!

On Friday, I finally submitted my first short story to an online literary magazine. Although the deadline doesn't come until the end of August, I wanted to get my story out as soon as possible. No messing around with brinkmanship on the eve of the deadline this time!

However, the whole experience terrified me beyond belief. I've rarely been so stressed out and scared in my life. I assume that the email went through, but you never really know, do you? And I don't want to ask, because they might not like me hassling them. Before I submitted, I read the instructions, and asked people questions when I needed to, but still I don't know if I did everything right. Come to think of it, I probably should have emailed the fiction editor a question or two beforehand, just so I had a better idea of what I was doing. Shoot.

Well, enough worrying about that. You live, you learn. Full steam ahead on my next story!

I've updated my Squidoo lens, How to Get a Book Published (Successfully!) to include information about submitting your work for publication. Enjoy!

Second Meeting of the Writeous Writers

Okay, it's about time I posted about the second meeting of my new writer's group, Writeous Writers. Once again, I met with amazing women, ate some amazing food, and learned some amazing things.

Suzy, who is new to the group since last month, is working on a non-fiction book about making workers more productive. I think she's got a great shot at it, because she already has regular speaking engagements presenting material similar to what she plans to put in the book, which will form an important part of her marketing plan. She gave us some great information about formatting non-fiction submissions for publication: note that the process can be very different from submitting fiction, so make sure that you have the right information. Dee brought in a short story (yay for rounding out our genre count!), and we worked more on novel manuscripts by Michille and myself. I was glad to hear that my critiquers approved of the brief poems I've included in my manuscript. I love the way that Tolkien incorporates poetry and song into his works, but I know that those forms can be very hit or miss, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see with those.

Next month we're going to have a quick session about websites before we get into the critiquing. Remember, a website is a great way to promote your work, and Weebly is a great way to set up your website!