Time For The Thrill!

In my previous post I discussed how I felt like I was on a roller coaster, climbing the hill, and ever so agonizingly slowly, reaching the summit.  Well that moment, between submitting the final proof approval and my book now being on the market, was the moment when everything sat still for that miniscule second.  I have now set off sailing down the other side of that hill, partaking in a ride of a lifetime!  Everything seems to be happening so quickly I feel like I’m in a whirlwind.

Now comes the time when marketing really starts to kick in.  Before I was simply telling people about a project that I hoped to have completed soon.  Now, I have a product to actually sell.  When someone asks me what I do I can say I am a writer, a novelist, an author, but now I have to add in the extremely important role as a marketer.  I suddenly have more titles than I know what to do with.  Being a stay-at-home mother suddenly seems acceptable to all of those scoffers that think no woman should be staying home when she could be working.

But now I have the one question that is always in the gleam of my husband’s eyes, “How many books have you sold?”  In order to answer that question with a satisfactory reply I am going to have to work harder than I ever have before.  Not only do I have to become a saleslady, but I have to sell myself with confidence as an author worth reading.

Writing this series forced me to face a lot of my own personal demons in which I had to overcome in order to get to this point.  But those were demons that stopped me from doing something I love.  Now I must face the demons that prevent me from doing something that isn’t necessarily my favorite part of being an author.  I can write thousands of pages about an imaginary person but when it comes to myself, it’s hard to get beyond a single sentence that only reflects who I am in reference to others.  So now I must face myself and answer the questions that came so difficult answering when I had to explain what my book was about in a single paragraph.  I must find a way to describe and sell confidence in me and hopefully find the strength to push through the next series of obstacles as that next hill looms before me.

 

Without Pride – That’s A Good Thing

It is so easy to get caught up in all of the struggles in life and allow them to bear down upon you.  What isn’t easy, at least for me, is asking for help.  I don’t know why, but I have a tendency of accepting whatever life throws at me and I try to make the best of it.  I like to think that my husband and I can conquer whatever obstacles we face.  For some reason, asking for help has always been a matter of pride to me, as if it makes me weak and appear helpless.

Well, the past few months have been a struggle for us.  We’ve had a lot of things break down, things that are difficult to do without.  But we’ve made do the best we can.  My dryer broke down, no big deal.  It’s summer, we live out in the country, we can hang the clothes on the line outside.  That is until the humidity grows so high that nothing dries outside.  So we resorted to hanging the clothes up in the house during the nights, hoping the fans will dry them for the morning.  Am I sounding pathetic yet?

My husband has been nursing our lawn mower because the starter (or whatever it is) went out on it.  Well, we’ve lived most of the summer in a drought so there hasn’t been much need to mow, until now.  Now the thing refuses to start.  Is it pathetic yet?

The simple fact is, we have so many other things we have to spend our money on that when it comes to spending money on something that isn’t absolutely necessary, it makes you want to forget those problems even exist and pretend they’re no big deal.

Well, today my parents came to visit and brought with them gifts.  They  brought parts for our lawn mower, a dryer, and rotors for the brakes on my car (another problem we chose to ignore).  They didn’t tell us what they were doing because they knew I would argue with them.  They are struggling just like most the other people in this world are in this economy.  I went through such a range of emotions that I feel ashamed to even confess to them.  I was angry because I didn’t want to be in the position of needing the things.  I was angry because I knew my parents could have used the money they work so hard to earn to pay for other things.  I can’t tell you how relieved and thankful I am.  Most of all I am completely humbled by my parent’s ever present generosity.  When I tell them thank you for anything they do for me their first and only response is that they wish they could do more.  All along I’m the one wishing I could do more for them for everything they have done for me.

I’m going to get a little more pathetic here and bring up something that I wrote in Knightingale.  Sadly enough, my main character, Samantha, shares far too many of my own qualities, whether they be good or bad.  In one of the conversations she was having with David, the other main character, he told her, “If you cannot accept the small things, then you cannot accept the big things coming your way.”

I knew that was a powerful statement when I wrote it, but I didn’t realize how much it pertained to me.  Pride has prevented me from accepting a lot of good things in my life for what they really are.  I really wish I could accept a gift without immediately thinking what I “need” to do to repay the person(s).  It’s not that repaying the person is bad, it’s the way my mind processes the acceptance of gifts.  We’ve all heard the saying “it’s the thought behind the gift that counts”.  Well I can tell you that it’s the thought behind the acceptance that counts as well.

I am still completely blown away by what my parents did today.  They will never know how much I appreciate it.  Perhaps this is one of those “God Lessons”.  Either way, from this point forward I’m going to stop worrying about owing people, and simply focus on what I can do for people.  I don’t expect to be repaid for anything I do.  But I know that my attitude towards acceptance is one of those instances where actions speak louder than words.  If I accept a gift as a debt then everyone will assume that I expect them to accept my gifts as a debt to me.  If this is God speaking to me, then I want Him to know that I have understood the lesson, now I’m going to work on applying that lesson in my life.

 

Writing Anxiety

I’m very near the end of the first leg of this writing adventure.  Every nerve you can imagine is kicking in and every doubt conceivable is attacking me like a swarm of mosquitoes.  Is my writing good enough?

Well, I’ve decided it’s time to get out the old bug spray and push those anxieties away.  I don’t have time for them!  Those little demons can go find someone else to attack.  When I started writing Knightingale I made a promise to myself that I would not stop until the book was finished.  The moment I stopped paying attention to the little devils on my shoulders was the moment the whole story poured out and in no time the book was completed.  Yes, I have made a ton of changes to the story, but that’s to be expected.  As long as the changes made the book better than who am I to complain? That’s not to mention all that I have learned along the way to make me an even better writer.  I have so much to be thankful for.  There have been so many blessings that have come from writing not just Knightigale but the next three books of the series as well.  I have no doubt that this is meant to be.  I know that sounds cliche but you have to have faith in order to push through any obstacle in life and you cannot lose sight of that faith.

Through faith and perseverance you find achievement.  It is the future that you must continually look towards.  I don’t want my career to stop with this one book, or this one series.  I want to continue writing and growing in my craft.  You have to take that first step and I for one am not going to allow doubt to hold me back anymore.  I absolutely love my story and that is a hard thing to achieve because I am extremely picky, even more so towards myself.  So if I can read my story over and over again through all of this editing and still feel that excitement, then that has to mean something.

 

 

Once in a Blue Moon

Like any author, I agonized over what the cover would be for Knightingale.  I didn’t want it to be the, oh so common, picture of two people embracing in a lustful scene that most romance books use.  I wanted it to ooze the essence of my story in a thought provoking way that draws people in.  I never dreamed that the pictures I chose for the covers of the Knightingale Series would evolve into a story all of their own.

The night I took the pictures, was a magical night itself.  My husband and I were sitting outside, watering the garden, trying to save it from the horrible drought we experienced earlier this year.  We were watching the clouds moving in, hoping and praying they would relinquish the rain that they had dropped in the counties all around us.  Instead they brought forth another blessing.

The moon was full, glowing in all of its majesty, and as the clouds began to move in it looked quite literally as if someone was blowing hundreds of little puffs of clouds until there was a layer of cotton balls covering the sky.  As the clouds slowly meandered across the moon they put on a show that took my breath away.  I ran into the house to grab my camera and spent the next several hours taking pictures of the various scenes that played out before us.  I never dreamed they would turn out so beautiful, let alone think that they would serve as the cover of my books.

But it seems that God held many blessings for that wondrous scene and made even more evident by the arrival of my proofs on the very day of the rare Blue Moon.  When the order for the proofs was placed, the books weren’t scheduled to arrive for another week, I never dreamed they would arrive three days later.

There are many things that we say throughout our life that are so rare we often refer to them happening “once in a blue moon.”  Writing a book and actually publishing it is most definitely one of those things I used to think was near impossible for me.  But as I hold my very first book in my hand, I can look at the cover and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this book was meant to be and God is pouring his blessings down on me.