Falling Back Into The Writing Habit...

 

I feel like I've been in hibernation all summer long, away from the sights and sounds of this writing community. But I'm finally back and eager to catch up on all the exciting things happening in everyone's publishing journeys.

I love the fall with its changing colors and cool, crisp mornings. Being allergic to both sun and heat, this long summer I just survived has me dreaming of cooler weather and falling leaves.  

I hope everyone enjoyed the encore presentation of my WRITERLY WISDOM series. No matter whether we are just beginning to craft our stories, or we're a seasoned writer,  sometimes it helps to have a refresher course on the basics of the whole writing journey. Thanks to all the wonderful authors, editors, and agents who took the time out of their busy writing lives of share some of their own writerly wisdom with those of us still fine tuning our own writing skills.

How's everyone's writing...or reading...coming along? I have a number of projects I'm juggling right now. My head is spinning from fine tuning the waterfall world of LUNADAR all the way to researching life in the US during the 1940's for the next book in my historical fiction series. I've also read almost 300 picture books to my summer camp kids and devoured many a chapter book for mentor text. I'm surprised my head doesn't explode from all those words I've been cramming in it these past few months.

Now it's half way through October and in the past I would be preparing for both PiBoIdMo AND NaNoWriMo next month but my friend, Tara Lazar, pulled a surprise out of the hat and moved PiBo to January so that frees up my writing plate a little bit...;~)

Mother Nature may be getting ready to go into hiding for the next few months, but in my neck of the woods I plan on gathering my harvest and making something fabulous...

3 WAYS PINTEREST CAN BOOST YOUR WRITING CAREER

 

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My sister and I were talking the other day about Pinterest. She told me she had an account and quite frankly I was surprised. Janet doesn't enjoy participating in social networking like I do. Her Facebook friends probably number less than twenty, but she likes it that way. That is why I was surprised to discover she even had a Pinterest account. I'm pretty sure she will only use it like a glorified photo album and that's just fine for her.

But not for writers.

 

If we are serious about our careers, writers have to consider how a social site like Pinterest can not only support our writing muse, but also help connect us with our intended audience. Ours is a visual world and here are three ways Pinterest can help us accomplish that task.

PROVIDES STORY LINE IDEAS

I love searching through Pinterest for wonderful illustrations to post to my PB IDEAS board (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/pb-ideas/). Something catches my eye and I pin it on my board for consideration later. I am a visual picture book writer and just studying whimsical or silly artwork will trigger a nugget of a story idea and I run with it. 

When I was writing my fantasy novel I created my LUNADAR board (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/lunadar/). It was there I would skip through the pictures and daydream of a world where my characters could come alive. It help ground me in the fantasy world I was creating until it was as real to me as I imagined my readers would hope it would become for them.

And when I work on my creative nonfiction manuscripts, I sometimes turn to my HISTORY board (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/history/) to maybe discover a little known fact that can become the spotlight of my next book. Why not use a picture based social site for gathering great research pictures?

SHOWCASING ONE'S WORK

Pinterest is a great way for people to take a look at your work. Right now I might only a couple of books available for purchase but MY PUBLISHED WORK board (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/my-published-work/) shows where readers can find my stories, view my STORY CATCHER book trailer, or check out my latest business postcards. My STORY CATCHER FAN CLUB board (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/story-catcher-fan-club/) has info about my picture book and butterflies because they are part of my STORY CATCHER logo. I would love to add Pinterest links of my FREE STORY CATCHER newsletters but haven't figure that one out yet. If you know how to turn a PDF file into a Pinterest pin let me know in the comments or shoot me an email. I would really appreciate it!

If you have a number of books out you could always set up a board for each board and show things like book covers, illustration art, pictures of book signings, Common Core activities linked to each book, etc. The more you are able to pin, the more connected your readers will be to your work.

SHARING WITH OTHERS

I have also created a number of boards to help others like writers, teachers, readers, etc. My FOR TEACHERS board (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/for-teachers/) has a plethora of activities to help support wonderful educators out there. I have a number of "writing" based boards like WRITING (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/writing/), NANOWRIMO (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/nanowrimo/), WRITING RESOURCES (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/writing-resources/),
and BOOK MARKETING (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/book-marketing/). Lastly, for all the lovely book lovers out there I have my BOOKS (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/books/) and WONDERFUL BOOKCASES (https://www.pinterest.com/donasdays/wonderful-bookcases/). 

The possibilities are endless with Pinterest. Whether you are more like my sister and just want a convenient space to post all your cool pictures or you are a serious professional working on furthering your writing career, Pinterest is definitely an avenue worth looking into!

Blurb: Addie comes from a long line of readers or "story catchers" as her family likes to call themselves. Every time Addie tries to catch a story on her own the wiggly words play tricks on her. She tries different ways to make those words sit still but it will take a little faith for Addie to become the next STORY CATCHER.

Buy Links:Amazon Kindle ¦ Paperback ¦ B&N ¦ Smashwords

JOIN THE STORY CATCHER FAN CLUB! Membership includes:

 
Membership Certificate

Bi-montly Newsletter full of mazes, puzzles, games, news, and other goodies

Reading Log for earning STORY CATCHER AWARD

SURPRISE ENDINGS IN LIFE & WRITING

A couple of Saturdays ago I thought I had the perfect day planned. My 5 year old buddy and I were going to spend the morning together. The day's agenda was all laid out...picking out books at the local indie bookstore, shopping for Christmas presents for her parents, and sharing some chicken nuggets at her favorite eatery. When I woke up that morning I would have sworn I knew every aspect of the day we had waited all week to enjoy. But LIFE doesn't always go as planned. The cookie cutter expected ending to our great buddy day was thrown out the window when my iPhone got stolen. I spent the next two hours with the police as we all stared at the person who now had my phone in their pocket. Unfortunately justice wasn't on my side and my day had a different ending than expected. Surprise!



Writing can be like that.



Last month I participated in NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's thousands of people coming together during the month of November to attempt to write a completed first draft of a novel in 30 days or less. It was my first year participating and I was determined to bring to life a story that had been rattling around in my head for almost three years. I originally thought LUNADAR was a stand alone young adult fantasy story but by the time I put down my 50,234th word it had blossomed into Book Two of a trilogy. Surprise!



I started the month with a detailed outline of exactly where my cast of characters were going to end up when I was done. I thought I knew Ariana like the back of my hand and the writing seemed to flow across the page effortlessly. But somewhere along the way things changed. The book came to life and went on its own path of discovery; leading me on a merry chase through fairie filled forests, standing on the deck of a ship on the high seas, fighting Titons at an underwater fortress, and even battling barb throwing beasts on a desert wasteland. The ending I had all planned out was thrown to the winds and a different one left in its place. Surprise!



Writing is a great passion of mine and I think the reason why I love it so is because it challenges me to stay one step ahead of my own creativity. Sometimes I do and a strong story is born. But sometimes, if I'm really lucky, my characters will plan a surprise ending for me that is completely unexpected and I love it.


I was a reader long before I became a writer and every reader wants to be engaged from the first page to the last. It's what makes them go "ahh" at the ending before telling all their friends about the fabulous book they just read. And for me as a writer, knowing there are people out there sharing my stories with others because they enjoyed what I wrote? Well, that's probably the biggest surprise of all!




Remember, there is still time to enter my giveaway of one autographed copy of my picture book, THE STORY CATCHER, and a grab bag of goodies! Contest ends on December 31st so get your entries in by clicking
on this Rafflecopter link and enter my giveaway!
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/10046a021/?

Good luck!

 

Blurb: Addie comes from a long line of readers or "story catchers" as her family likes to call themselves. Every time Addie tries to catch a story on her own the wiggly words play tricks on her. She tries different ways to make those words sit still but it will take a little faith for Addie to become the next STORY CATCHER.

Buy Links:Amazon Kindle ¦ Paperback ¦ B&N ¦ Smashwords

JOIN THE STORY CATCHER FAN CLUB!Membership includes:

 
Membership Certificate

Bi-montly Newsletter full of mazes, puzzles, games, news, and other goodies

Reading Log for earning STORY CATCHER AWARD

Reaching For The Stars...

Normally I would be doing one of my children's book reviews in this slot but today I wanted to make a little announcement, so here goes...

NEWS FLASH!

I'm stepping away from my blog for a little while.

Not for long and not forever.

You see, I have a number of writing commitments and projects with time sensitive deadlines coming up over the next two months and I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to figure out how to get everything done. Some people might think I'm some sort of Super Woman but I'm actually only human and can only go in so many directions at once...;~)

So, I'm going to step away from my blog for the months of November and December to focus on a number of things including...

1. Participate in NaNoWriMo where I intend to rewrite the first half of my young adult fantasy novel LUNADAR: HOMEWARD BOUND and then actually finish this novel that's been haunting me for about three years now.

2. Participate in PiBoIdMo where I am wanting to focus on researching and fleshing out some more possible creative historical fiction topics. Since I need to come up with 30 ideas in 30 days, surely to goodness a few of them with pop up!

3. Complete a number of book reviews I've committed to for Harper Collins and the Fiction Guild.

4.  Complete two "dummy" picture books to help with my author visits. This is a request per the school system I'm working with to expand what I can offer the schools and I'm happy to oblige.

5. Work on revisions to my existing manuscripts...14 picture books and 3 chapter books.

6. Complete my research on book 3 of a new historical fiction chapter book series I've created and maybe start on the first draft.

7.  Oh yeah...take time to enjoy the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

8. Enjoy a much needed break from work and writing projects when I go on vacation the week of Christmas.

I really enjoy blogging and I hope you have been entertained these past four years (my blogiversary is 12/6/11) and I intend to return on January 4th, 2016 with all kinds of new ideas to share with you, my wonderful readers. I'll still be on Facebook and Pinterest but for now, I'm taking the next two months off from blogging to shoot for the stars!!

Blurb: Addie comes from a long line of readers or "story catchers" as her family likes to call themselves. Every time Addie tries to catch a story on her own the wiggly words play tricks on her. She tries different ways to make those words sit still but it will take a little faith for Addie to become the next STORY CATCHER.

Buy Links:Amazon Kindle ¦ Paperback ¦ B&N ¦ Smashwords

JOIN THE STORY CATCHER FAN CLUB!Membership includes:

 
Membership Certificate

Bi-montly Newsletter full of mazes, puzzles, games, news, and other goodies

Reading Log for earning STORY CATCHER AWARD



A Temporary Goodbye...

It was a heart breaking decision.  One that didn't come easily for me.  I could go into boring details about why I need to temporarily step away from this blog and writing in general, but your time is more valuable than that.  I am hoping it will only be for a little while...through the month of November...and with my one year blogging anniversary coming up in December, hopefully I will be able to return a better person than I am right now.

I've met so many wonderful people this past year and I know there will be many successes while I am gone.  Know that I'm doing the happy dance in honor of all the fabulous writers within this community as they get to finally step into the warm circle of writing success.  I hope my followers will understand that I would rather be here and hope they will be able to wait for me...if not, I understand.

I'm afraid I might not be able to fulfill my personal commitment to both PiBoIdMo and NaNoWriMo as I had planned, but I will complete my promise to Julie Hedlund and write one last post that will be on her blog for November 13th.  After that, I will put my pen down for now...

In the meantime you can browse through some of my other posts you might not have read before and if all goes well, you won't have long to wait to see my smiling face again because I'll...