Emily H. Bates's Blog, page 2

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” The...

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Problematic beginnings

Last night, I stayed up way too late pretending that I was rocking the baby to sleep when, in reality, I was furiously rewriting the beginning of one of my stories on my cell phone. (Not the most efficient way to write, but when you have one free hand and a sleeping child on your chest, you make do.) This is the fourth or fifth beginning to this particular project, and it’s the first time that it’s felt right.

We all know that beginnings are important–they grab the reader, slice into the meat...

Endings and Beginnings

“Sometimes,” I said, “you have to let one story end so the next one can begin.”

“How do you know when that will happen?”

“You don’t,” I said. “Which is why you should always carry on.”

(Finding Winnie, Lindsay Mattick)

The slow descent into a Twitter addiction

I can’t believe I just opened a Twitter account. This is so dumb.

What are you even supposed to say in 140 characters? Maybe–nope, how about–still too long–GAH!

Whatever. I don’t have anything witty to say anyway. I’ll just link to my blog.

What’s with all the cat pictures?

OK, OK, I’ll tweet, but I’m NOT using hashtags. I don’t even get how those work.

All these other writers are using the #amwriting hashtag…I guess that one’s harmless enough. I’ll try it.

HOLY CRAP, like ten people just fol...

It’s how we use them

“But of course we can’t take any credit for our talents. It’s how we use them that counts.” (Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time)

Checking in

I’ve been absent from the internet for a while here, busy with our new arrival:

I hope you are all making great strides toward your life goals, dreams, and ambitions! I’ll be back to blogging and catching up on blogs soon enough, but in the meantime, enjoy your weekend and have a beautiful Easter Sunday!

Stumbling across inspiration

I’m having a hard time getting anywhere with my writing this week. I’m probably burned out on most of my projects, but just not writing isn’t an option for me. I’d go stark raving mad.

So yesterday, I decided to shift perspective on one of my stories and write a bit from a side character’s point of view. It was refreshing and led to some great character development, which in turn influenced how I’m seeing this plot unwind.

AND it made me realize:

I’m telling one of my other stories from COMPL...

Waiting waiting waiting

The launch party was a great success on Saturday! It was so fun to talk books and writing with so many readers.

And now Stone Alliance is out in the world, and I’m waiting for this baby to come out into the world too. Between being roughly the size of a rhinoceros and coming down with a ridiculous cold, it’s been increasingly hard to do anything remotely productive, so I’ve been catching up on some reading. Here’s what’s in my stack this week:

Beastly Bones by William Ritter
Charlie Bone and...

Something gained

“To be always peaceful is no more a part of progress than it is of a river, which piles up rocks and creates barriers as it flows; these obstacles cause the water to froth and humanity to seethe. This leads to disturbance; but when the disturbance is over we realize that something has been gained.” (Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

“Living in squalor, that was the answer.”

Someone asked me this week how I find time to write, which is easily the most common question put to me when people hear I’m an author. The first thing that came to mind was this wonderful quote from JK Rowling:

“People very often say to me, ‘How did you do it, how did you raise a baby and write a book?’ And the answer is–I didn’t do housework for four years. I am not superwoman. And, um, living in squalor, that was the answer.”

In a week where I had a book release, beta reading, layout desig...