Thursday Writing Update

The idea of this blog was not to bore you snotless with aimless writing on nothing – the purpose is to motivate, share my experiences, and maybe amuse you for a second or two. In this business, if you don’t laugh, you die :)

I am NOT GOOD at patting myself on the back or leading a parade in my honor. But since this is the cool part about writing, the part where you can Google yourself and come up with all kinds of hits, lol, well, I will share.

Her Wiccan, Wiccan Ways is collecting killer reviews – I will post the links. I’m really excited about this because this book, this SERIES, has endured a tough beginning. Thank you to everyone who bought the e-version, and thanks to those who posted a review. I think that the print version may be available sooner than February – I hope so, and all my body parts are crossed!
Something Wiccan This Way Comes will be available, in e-book format, in November.

Good news on the Love’s Magic front! My cover has been in the May and June editions of Romantic Times Magazine, and I was spotlighted for the online version – you can read the interview by clicking here: http://www.romantictimes.com/stage/authors_spotprev.php?id=397

In May I will be in Melbourne, on a panel with fellow e-authors, and Siren and Samhain Publishing – I’m nervous, because what do I KNOW??? Nothing. And if anybody asks me anything harder than ‘what’s your name?’ I’ll have to lie and pretend that I know stuff JJJ

In June I will be doing a radio blog post with Medallion Press – how is cool is that?? I will give more information as it comes in. I will also be doing an online workshop in June over at Romance Divas, and I will be doing various booksignings up and down the Florida coast in June and July before going to San Francisco for RWA.

Because the word is out about author’s doing their own promo, I’ve decided to sign on with Pump Up Your Book promotion – very reasonable. I’ll let you know how it works.

This is the part I have been waiting for, for sooooo long. I’m ready! Very, very ready to work even harder to keep the momentum going – this is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid – to have MY book in MY hands. To tell funny but sorta scary stories, with a happy ending.

And make money at it :)

Again, I will let you know how it goes…I took a job at Starbucks so that I can pay for promo until book money comes in – lol

Traci

the writing muse

I don't actually believe in the writing muse. I joke about her, and blame my bad days on her, but I'm not really into sitting yoga-style to conjure a misty angel in opulescent skirts before waxing poetic.

By the time I sit down to write, I've usually plotted my book pretty heavy so I know (or should know) where I'm going. Sort of like doing a major outline with dark purple crayon before filling it in with the lighter lavander.

It doesn't always work, but I think that comes from trying to go in the wrong direction more than anything else.

I tend to procrastinate (a lot, lol) so I think I'd be in bigger trouble if I bought into the whole muse thing. And I'm super susceptible to imagination so it might spill over into other areas of my life.

Cook dinner? No...the muse isn't striking me. Yard work...sorry. No muse. Laundry? Now that would be worth having the wench around for!

I could give her a name, like Mable, and she could wear an apron and have chapped hands from scrubbing toilets. A mustache even...poor Mable. She works her fingers to the bone, and for what??? Minimum wage and no respect...my luck, Mable would quit, leaving me mounds of mythical laundry. No ironed shirts and no muse.

So the muse isn't for me, not really, but I will tell you what motivates me: the next goal. The next deadline - self-imposed or editor-mandated, I work for that great feeling of completing a project.

I know - lame. The make-believe muse is much more fun!

Traci

Friday - Prom Night

I should really go see that - it looks great! Maybe the girls that will be having their anti-prom party at our house tonight would want to go???
I have my fingers crossed - when they should be typing.
Where in the hell does the time go? I’d promised myself that I would have my YA proposal done to send out today. And I will – but I never wrote a synopsis, and those are So Hard. Plus I need to help the kids today because tonight is prom, and even though my two slacker children chose not to go, despite much urging, I have to help a few of their friends – boys and corsages, that kind of thing.
This is where the fact that I used to be a florist comes in handy!!!

Anyway, I’ve been figuring out what I will need to spend over the next year and a half – for promo and travel etc.
It exceeds what I make by so much that I am going to get a job to afford my writing career.

There is something pathetic there, although determined sounds better.

Me at McDonalds: Would you like fries with that?
Me at a Bank: Would you like a reciept with that?
Me at Walmart: Would you like a cart with that?
Me at my current stage in publishing:Would you like whipped cream with that?

Wish me luck

I’ve blogged over at the babes today on advice, lol – as if I should be handing out any of THAT to go along with the coffee…. Check out www.babesinbookland.com

thanks for stopping by!!

hittin' my stride

Okay, so I just saw Run Fat Boy Run, and I have to tell you that feeling you get when you are in the zone, when the miles are speeding beneath your feet, when the smell of the road is enough to keep you going - that is exactly the feeling that I get when I am on the right track with a book.



I can't wait to get up in the morning and write - even better, I get up with a character clue, or another layer that I want to add in. It is amazing. I'm thinking about the characters while I'm cooking, driving or cleaning - their life takes over mine and it is DIVINE, lol.



Makes it hard to be a part of the day to day world though - how can I possibly care about volunteering for the Band Banquet when I'm really focused on hiding a serial rapist? Or smack dab in the middle of roofie research? It's no wonder that during this period I wander around with one earring and no make up - I will be lucky if I can remember to comb my hair. The ponytail holder is my friend. I give the kids cash and a grocery list and hope they come home with something besides sunflower seeds and coke.



What is making it harder this go around is learning how to market my current ebook and promote my print book while trying to get the most from my writing stride...

But I don't care how many challenges are put in my way, I don't care how depressing the market news is - I am tired of hearing about how the publishing sky is falling! I am a story teller and there will always be people who want a story - starting from when they first swapped lies about how big of a dinosaur they caught while sitting around a campfire, people want to be entertained - I will find whatever medium works!

happy day!

Traci

Starting something new

Writers - new or seasoned - have all complained about how easy it is to procrastinate rather than write.

I consider myself kind of in the middle - my first book is finally out and available, making me new - but I'm an old dog in writing years, I swear. I first published in 1996 with a short story in Hob Nob magazine. It won a People's Choice award, and lemme tell ya, I thought I was IN. So, silly, naive me that I was, I put the children's books aside to wait until my kids were older. I had an idea that writing would be all consuming (ya think???)and they (the kids) had to come first. So I wrote long romances instead, lolol.

It made sense at the time

So here am, 12 years later, struggling to make my way in the world of writing. You have to be pretty damn new to not understand that writing is the least of your worries. Finish the manuscript, polish the manuscript, publish the manuscript....and repeat.

That's where I am today - the 'repeat' part, lol.

Sit ass in chair, apply duct tape, disable internet, remember that you love to tell a story...what are we writing about, again???

life is forward moving...saturday was my last day as president of Florida Romance Writers - sad, but it will give me more time procrast - I mean, write.

Traci

two days after release day...

Writing - and recouping after the first book debut
Seriously, I was totally overwhelmed by all of the beautiful people in my life who not only bought Her Wiccan, Wiccan Ways, but read it, too!
And then said such incredible things!! I swear I didn't pay a soul. Thanks to everybody for making me feel like a princess, lol.
Sort of a princess. Maybe a princess in between laundry and cat puke and being yelled at by my kids for not having any food in the house. Or food that was Good Food. Which I am supposed to know by reading their minds, but their minds are cluttered this spring break, and I thought bread and lunchmeat and delivery pizza were good enough.
My fault for not realizing that they wanted Hot Pockets and pasta…
Floating on Cloud 9 is so cool but my kids make sure that my feet remain firmly planted on the ground, lol. This is a good thing, since I could be one of those HUGE fun shaped helium-filled Disney float balloons - celebrating and happy as I bounce along with the parade, yet firmly tethered to the sturdy cart of bills and kitty litter so I can't actually get lost.
Yes, this is a possibility
I’m being invited to give author interviews (thanks guys!!) and it’s really nice to be treated like a writer – a writer who has been judged by her peers and so far, things are looking good.

I am still grinning like an idiot whenever I think about it!!!
Traci

Her Wiccan, Wiccan Ways - release day!!

I am feeling incredibly writerish today :) could be because I've bought my own book online at

http://samhainpublishing.com/books/her-wiccan-wiccan-wayshttp://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/product_info.php?products_id=921

I am plastering this news all over the internet, and now I have to wait to see if I will sell more than my one lonely copy, lol. Right now I don't care! I just want to dance around my computer and stare at my name...I was wondering how it would feel to be epubbed versus print - which will happen in June. I'll let you know...but the OMG, I'm really a writer!!! feeling is very strong and it is GREAT, lol. So my writing day has been this: running around in circles until I'm both dizzy and sick, drinking coffee and manically checking email for - I don't know what.

If you want a chance at winning a free copy, along with a gift basket, head on over to TeensReadToo.com and enter the contest - good luck! I'll probably be back later

Traci

writing day

I am ashamed to even check in today :(

I've spent all day getting ready to hand over the Presidential BOXES of stuff. Florida Romance Writers is a terrific group, and I'm very proud to list being president as one of my accomplishments for the past two years.
I can't say that I'll miss the hours and hours of work.
I've promised myself to get back into a routine, but a writer's life (or at least this writer's life, lol) is very far from routine!
I've got big plans starting in May for a new, orderly life that starts at 7 am and ends at 5. Don't hurt yourself laughing - it can happen!
or not...I'll let you know, lol

I have to get back to packing and culling so that the next pres doesn't pass out from box shock!

writing on tuesdays

pffft (weird noise being puffed through lips like a raspberry, but not, lol) it is no different than making yourself write any other day of the week

Okay, I was going to write yesterday - but I ended up blogging over at http://www.babesinbookland.com/ and so - well - that's just an excuse. The truth of the matter is I went off on a million promotional tangents, and only wrote 3 crappy pages before coming to a screeching halt. A HUGE plot issue that I can't get around. Let's face it, when the teen heroine is in love with her teacher the teacher CAN'T know about this without being a pedophile, and that totally ruins the flow of the story!! lol. I will work on this today until I get it right. This book has a lot of potential and I don't wanna mess it up. I've deleted over 100 pages already so what's 3 more?
Still painful, that's what, lol.

My FIRST book comes out in a week! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am trying to get reviews on the story, so if you want to give me one, send me an email and I will send you a free ecopy!

Happy Tuesday!! Seven more days until Her Wiccan Wiccan Ways is available for purchase!!!!