Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler... Let The Good Times Roll!

To all my current and future #DCSPeeps (DECIDE, COMMIT, SUCCEED), welcome to my new series in my continuing effort to inspire, amuse, and entertain you! Each Monday I will select a new word to analyze how it might apply to our writing lives and also give you a peek into my childhood growing up in the swamps of southern Louisiana, so kick back, put your feet up, and check out my story about TODAY'S WORD:

FESTIVALS

Sometime during my early childhood years, my hometown got the urge to create a festival. I'm sure whoever was on that committee looked around and after seeing the multitude of water fowl migrating and living in the surrounding marshland, decided the best idea they could come up with is the annual Duck Festival. Over the years it expanded to such a level that my hometown became officially known as the Duck Capital of America, but in my mind it will always be just a one horse town stuck in the middle of nowhere...

Writers are naturally drawn to anywhere other writers congregate. Drawn to the energy of creativity and the possibility that new knowledge about the craft of writing will somehow be passed onto them. 

I had the chance to attend the Rose Glen Literary Festival this past weekend and came away infused with a renewed passion to continue on my publication journey. Some of the people I came across included...

Sam Venable...a retired journalist whose down home style of writing exudes such warmth that this extreme introvert felt comfortable enough to have a twenty minute conversation with him, including asking him to autograph one of his books for my sister.

Wiley Cash...New York Times best selling author and keynote speaker at the luncheon. The food was delicious, the atmosphere open and inviting, and the speaker telling of an intriguing tale of murder and mayhem in a small town not unlike my own.

But my absolute favorite time was during the ABC's of Writing for Children workshop I attended. It was hosted by Rick Starkey, (www.rickstarkey.com), author of BLUES BONES, and the amazing Debbie Dadey, (www.debbiedadey.com), author of the ADVENTURES OF THE BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS and her latest series, MERMAID TALES.

             

I came away with lovely attendance prizes like a cool tote bag, a neat writing journal, a beautiful piece of art, and a hand crafted souvenir pottery jar I'm going to use to hold my drawing pencils. Oh yeah, and a few autographed books...

ARE YOU THE MISSING PIECE? is now available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, and other fine retailers. It was a #1 international bestseller in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US last fall.

 

International best selling author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt Taekwondo Instructor by day and a 'ninja' writer of children’s picture books, chapter books and young adult novels by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host and book reviewer for Harper Collins, She is also a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators and Children's Book Insider. Donna is a lover of dark chocolate, time at the beach, and well written stories.

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Sharing Your Love With Others...

To all my current and future #DCSPeeps (DECIDE, COMMIT, SUCCEED), welcome to my new series in my continuing effort to inspire, amuse, and entertain you! Each Monday I will select a new word to analyze how it might apply to our writing lives and also give you a peek into my childhood growing up in the swamps of southern Louisiana, so kick back, put your feet up, and check out my story about TODAY'S WORD:

PASSION

This week will mark the age old tradition of sharing a bit of friendship...and maybe some secret love...with some special people in our lives. I can remember eagerly awaiting the arrival of Valentine's Day with all the PASSION of your typical third grader back in the day.

I would spend time drawing on and decorating my paper bag with all the usual hearts, cupids, and doves; hoping among the many homemade cards I would receive, I would get a coveted store bought card and maybe even a piece or two of candy if I was lucky. There was even a boy or two I had my heart set on, and I took special care to infuse a little puppy love PASSION into those special cards...

Writers fall in love with their own manuscripts all the time....creating those special worlds with such PASSION...and are sometimes surprised when agents or publishers don't share their PASSION over a particular story.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out if your main character will tug at the heart strings of the publishing gatekeepers. If the world you create is strong enough to stir the PASSIONS of an extremely subjective audience. But just like the kids in my third grade class, there are readers out there waiting to share a little readerly love...you just have to have the PASSION to keep at it...

ARE YOU THE MISSING PIECE? is now available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, and other fine retailers. It was a #1 international bestseller in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US last fall.

 

International best selling author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt Taekwondo Instructor by day and a 'ninja' writer of children’s picture books, chapter books and young adult novels by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host and book reviewer for Harper Collins, She is also a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators and Children's Book Insider. Donna is a lover of dark chocolate, time at the beach, and well written stories.

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Riding The Ferry To Nowhere...

To all my current and future #DCSPeeps (DECIDE, COMMIT, SUCCEED), welcome to my new series in my continuing effort to inspire, amuse, and entertain you! Each Monday I will select a new word to analyze how it might apply to our writing lives and also give you a peek into my childhood growing up in the swamps of southern Louisiana, so kick back, put your feet up, and check out my story about TODAY'S WORD:

FERRY

My hometown was surrounded by rice fields and swamps. Canals ran everywhere and sometimes there was literally no other way to get from one place to the other than by boat.

Once a month, my siblings and I would pile into our old car and my father would drive north to the FERRY. The only way we would get to the next biggest town was to float across the boggy swamps on an ancient boat pulled across the murky waters along steel cables laid across the bayou. My mother could be seen with her feet peeking out the passenger window as she patiently waited for the sluggish FERRY to reach the other shore.

I, on the other hand, was terrified to be on that FERRY. I always imagined some freakish accident happening; the cables breaking, and being swept down the canal to some mysterious place where the "gris gris" or Cajun swamp monster lurked.

Writers sometimes find themselves bogged down by writer's block, self-doubts, and insecurities when it comes to their writing. They impatiently wait for muses who sometimes never show up while deadlines rush to meet them. They need that FERRY to pull them along a river of creativity, carrying them to the other shore and setting them on the path to publication...

ARE YOU THE MISSING PIECE? is now available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, and other fine retailers. It was a #1 international bestseller in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US last fall.

 

International best selling author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt Taekwondo Instructor by day and a 'ninja' writer of children’s picture books, chapter books and young adult novels by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host and book reviewer for Harper Collins, She is also a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators and Children's Book Insider. Donna is a lover of dark chocolate, time at the beach, and well written stories.

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Someone Throw Me A Lifesaver...

To all my current and future #DCSPeeps (DECIDE, COMMIT, SUCCEED), welcome to my new series in my continuing effort to inspire, amuse, and entertain you! Each Monday I will select a new word to analyze how it might apply to our writing lives and also give you a peek into my childhood growing up in the swamps of southern Louisiana, so kick back, put your feet up, and check out my story about TODAY'S WORD:

DROWNING

You would think a gal who was raised in and around the swamps of southern Louisiana would know how to swim like a snapping turtle, but that was one life skill I never quite learned how to master.

When I was seventeen I traveled to San Diego to spend some time with my older brother. He was in the Navy and stationed on the battleship USS Enterprise.  I thought I would have the time of my life, romping on the beach and cultivating a tan.

I was wrong.

My first day at the beach, my brother and one of his Navy buddies decided it would be funny to grab me, drag me out to water over my head and dump me in the Pacific Ocean to see if I could get back to shore. What they didn't bargain on was my getting disoriented and nearly DROWNING before they realized what was going on and had to drag me back to dry land.

That is one memory I've carried with me for almost forty years, coloring my fear of water I can't see through and preventing me from enjoying the local pool each summer.

As writers, we sometimes allow all the daily tasks and writerly deadlines weighing down our plates to try to DROWN us to the point of immobility.  We can't seem to see a light at the end of the tunnel and allow our fears to DROWN us in a sea of overwhelming uncertainty and lack of confidence in our ability to achieve our daily goals.

Since my faithful computer died last month, I have been DROWNING in a never ending pile of writerly deadlines inching closer and closer toward me. Here are some of the things I have done to help keep my head above water...

1. Use other computers whenever possible. My boss generously allows me to use the school's computer to write my weekly blog posts so I won't get behind.  My local library also allows access to their computers in two hour blocks for quick tasks I can do there. It also gives me a chance to check out the books...and was a great resource for story ideas during Tara's Lazar's STORYSTORM this month!

2. Set priorities. There were a couple of submission opportunities with January deadlines so I had to make sure I found a way to meet those deadlines in time.  Some of my other writing projects will have to wait until next month after I get my tax refund and can purchase my new computer.

3. Take this "down time" to work on either generating new stories or revising/cleaning up old manuscripts that I have hard copies on hand. I can always transfer the info to my files and databases later, but for now, I'm staying productive.

4.  Use my smartphone for keeping in touch with my social sites so my friends and other connections won't begin to think I really have DROWNED.

5. Take this time to make sure I'm getting extra rest and ready to hit the ground running next month when I am fully, technologically functioning again. I've been going to bed well before my usual midnight lights out, and have actually found time to do some leisure reading this weekend that I NEVER get the chance to do anymore!

Some of these ideas might work for you, and maybe you will come up with some ideas of your own to prevent you from DROWNING under the weight of revisions, submissions, manuscripts, and other writerly deadlines this year.

If you come up with something that really works for you, please share in the comments below. You never know when you might be saving another writer needing a helping hand!

ARE YOU THE MISSING PIECE? is now available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble Bookstore, and other fine retailers. It was a #1 bestseller in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US last fall.

 

International best selling author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt Taekwondo Instructor by day and a 'ninja' writer of children’s picture books, chapter books and young adult novels by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host and book reviewer for Harper Collins, She is also a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators and Children's Book Insider. Donna is a lover of dark chocolate, time at the beach, and well written stories.

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