Heather Lee Dyer's Blog
April 13, 2019
Idaho Writers Guild Conference 2019
Treasure Valley writers!
Clear your calendars for April 26th and 27th! This years Idaho Writers Guild Conference promises to be the best yet! And I’m not just saying that because I’m a speaker this year. :}
I am so honored to be among a great line up of editors, authors, publishers, agents, and a judge. You can register here for the conference.
There will be main stage presenters as well as breakout workshops, lunch with the presenters and agent pitch sessions!!!
Hope to see you there!
-Heather
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15 WORKSHOP PRESENTERS:
Sherry Briscoe | Mystery
Heather Dyer | Sci-fi/Fantasy
Greg Likins | Short Story/Flash Fiction
Reuben Appelman| True Crime
Donna Cook | Easy Money Mastery
Margo Kelly | YA
Scott Marchant | Non-Fiction
Susan Rowe | Memoir
Elizabeth Gutting | Creative Nonfiction
Kelly Jones | Historical Fiction
Tom Reale | Publishing
Dwayne Blackaller | Playwriting
Rosalind James | Romance
Elisabeth McKetta | Working with Editors
Lisa Zelenak | Zero to Published in 90 Days
MAIN STAGE EMCEE:
12 MAIN STAGE PRESENTERS:
2 AGENTS:
April 12, 2019
Recycling Humanity Short Stories!
More additions to the Recycling Humanity universe! Available on Amazon now! I have released two short stories that won Honorable Mentions in the Writers of the Future Contest!
The short story that started off the whole series is actually from Abishai’s point of view. Read Sand and Starships (Recycling Humanity 0.5) to see what life was like before he meets Kaci Lee. This is the prequel to Recycling Humanity.
Leading up to Starlight Max, the second book in the series, there is Escape from Rokyta. It is a short story (Recycling Humanity 1.5) that explains how Kindra Ara ends up with orphans and in trouble with the law.
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-Heather
February 2, 2019
7 Days Left For Giveaway!
Delta Fringe series GIVEAWAY!
I have two amazing challenge coins to giveaway to celebrate the Delta Fringe series boxset release. These coins are from our local Ada County coroner’s office, and they are awesome! The tour through the coroner’s office was an amazing experience. These coins and the tour were the inspiration for the Delta Fringe series!
The winners of the coins will be chosen randomly.
To enter to win you only need to make a comment and let me know which of my books or characters in my books is your favorite!
If you’ve just started reading my books you can comment on which cover is your favorite! These comments can be from either my Recycling Humanity or Delta Fringe series.
Comment by midnight MST FEBRUARY 8, 2019 and I’ll draw two names on Saturday, February 9th! Then I’ll mail the coins to the winners using the super cool Star Trek stamps! #geekgirl!
If you have any questions you can e-mail me at author@heatherleedyer.com
And keep an eye out for other super amazing giveaways coming up in the next few months!
-Heather
Website: www.heatherleedyer.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherleedyer/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/heatherleedyer/
Amazon: Amazon Author Page
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January 27, 2019
Delta Fringe Boxset and a Giveaway!
I’m so excited for the release of the boxset for books 1-3 of the Delta Fringe series this week! If you haven’t read this newest series of mine yet, now you can binge-read all three!
GIVEAWAY! I have two amazing challenge coins to giveaway to celebrate the Delta Fringe series boxset release. These coins are from our local Ada County coroner’s office, and they are awesome! The tour through the coroner’s office was an amazing experience. You can read all about it in one of my earlier blogs here. These coins and the tour were the inspiration for the Delta Fringe series!
(The coins shown on the right are front and back)
The winners of the coins will be chosen randomly.To enter to win you only need to make a comment and let me know which of my books or characters in my books is your favorite! If you’ve just started reading my books you can comment on which cover is your favorite! These comments can be from either my Recycling Humanity or Delta Fringe series.You can comment on this blog, reply to my newsletter, or comment on my Website or Author Facebook page!Comment by midnight MST FEBRUARY 8, 2019 and I’ll draw two names on Saturday, February 9th! Then I’ll mail the coins to the winners using the super cool Star Trek stamps! #geekgirl!
If you have any questions you can e-mail me at author@heatherleedyer.com
And keep an eye out for other super amazing giveaways coming up in the next few months!
-Heather
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Website: www.heatherleedyer.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherleedyer/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/heatherleedyer/
Amazon: Amazon Author Page
January 21, 2019
Lost Time and Pivot!
Where in the world did December go?? I felt the month of December was a holding time, as if I was slowly, excruciatingly just waiting around for something to happen. Maybe for the busyness of the holidays to be over. Or maybe it was because I was working hard to set my goals for 2019. Or maybe I was just impatiently waiting for my third Delta Fringe book to finally be released to the world!! Probably, all of the above.
Farewell, December 2018!
Patience is definitely tested when you’re juggling deadlines and multiple jobs. Throw in health issues, good and bad family events, and you have a recipe for quite the roller coaster ride!
And now it’s the third week of January and my carefully thought out goals are already destroyed for the year.
Not really destroyed, but changed. More like morphed into something more colorful, beautiful, and exciting than I could have come up with for myself. I love it when the universe shows us that there is more out there than what we can imagine!
I’m normally a very goal-oriented person. I love checklists, sticky note reminders all over the house, to-do calendars, vision boards, and long-term and short-term goals. I took December to set all these up for 2019. I was ready for 2019.
One of the practices I adopted a few years back that I find one of the most useful is called “My 3 Words.” I learned this practice from Chris Brogan. See his 2019 blog here. My three words for 2019 are Focus, Gratitude, and Leadership. I imagined these would work nicely with my expanding author business. Focus on writing, have gratitude for all the people and opportunities in my path (these have been amazing over the years!), and leadership for the middle grade and high school mentoring I love to do.
And then January flipped me on my head. Where December was a slow crawl to the finish line, January has fueled my creative flame, given me opportunities I didn’t see coming, and most importantly, showed me how to pivot with grace.
Many of the items on my 2019 goals list will stay the same:
I still intend to publish 6-8 books this year.I will continue to learn and grow in my writing and marketing.I even invested in a Masterclass subscription and look forward to getting through all the writing classes, and of course Chris Hadfield’s class on all things space!But now I’m aware that I will need to limit my Netflix time, useless social activities, and the number of conferences I go to this year. This way I can focus more on writing and the other opportunities that have presented themselves in my life.
This is pivoting. Just like in the show Friends. The one with the couch. 
November 26, 2018
Day 22-26 NaNoWriMo- The End is Near!!
The End of NaNoWriMo is near. And thankfully so is the end of my story as well! I was struggling the last week. And I know I wasn’t the only one.
I was discussing this End-of-the-novel slump with a small group of amazing new YA author friends of mine. We created a slack group we lovingly named (our initial meetings were at the bar in the center of an indoor atrium!) #writebitches. We keep each other accountable and sane and informed. These ladies are amazing! I am extremely thankful to have met them!
Anyway, just about everyone in our group had felt this phenomenon. We just want the end of the story to write itself so we can go to the next shiny story!
So we encouraged each other to keep going! And guess what!? We got through and are running toward the finish line! Some of us are limping, but we’re moving. That’s what counts. Forward momentum.
So, what project are you working on that needs you to just put one foot in front of another??
Here’s my kick in the pants for you today: I challenge you to just do one thing today that will make a difference, no matter how small, toward your goal. Write one page, practice the piano or foreign language lesson for ten minutes, or sketch one small object or person today! Find your one small step and do it!!
-Heather
November 21, 2018
Day 20 & 21- NaNoWriMo- Productive Words
I love writing the last quarter of a book! It’s the time when you’re past the all important non-soggy middle (what we all strive for, right?!), and the finish line is in sight.
Sometimes though at this point I would start feeling the end-of-book blues by now. You ever felt that? Where you’re sad that the story is coming to an end and you start missing your daily interaction with your characters.
Just like our readers experience.
This is why I LOVE writing in a series! I know that when I finish this book I’ll still be living with my beloved characters and exploring their world with them in the next.
And this is also why our readers love a good series! They want to find out what comes next in the lives and worlds of the characters they fall in love with!
So as I’m writing the last of the 3rd Delta Fringe novel, I’ve already got 4-6 in mind!
I love being a writer! It’s not easy, it takes time away from my cooking and ironing (joking- I dislike cooking and I don’t iron LOL), but it’s fulfilling in so many ways.
Keep on reading and writing!!
-Heather
November 19, 2018
Day 19 NaNoWriMo- A Productive Day!
I woke up before my 4:15 am alarm today excited to write! Relatively pain free, and I knew exactly where I wanted my story to go. These are the awesome days, the days I yearn to be a full time (at home) writer. I qualify the full time part because most weeks I get in close to full time writing hours, after I’ve finished my day job.
So after a full hour of writing, and just under 2000 words, I had to get ready to go to my day job.
Even my day job went by quick. I got a lot of work done and I feel good about it. Although I’d rather be at home writing, I believe in giving everything I do my full attention. I wouldn’t feel right if I slacked off at my day job just because I’d rather be doing something else.
What I’ve realized is that even as a legal assistant there are skills and behaviors and habits that I can learn and refine to make myself better. And these all will help give me a good solid foundation when I do get the opportunity to stay home and write.
Make the most of every experience, no matter how boring or tedious.
Keep writing and reading!!
-Heather
November 18, 2018
Day 18 NaNoWriMo -A New Day
It’s amazing how each day of our lives can be so different! This last week I’ve been struggling to write and hold down my day job. Even yesterday, Saturday, my favorite day of the week was a struggle.
But today was a new day. I’m so grateful every morning that I wake up, and days that are productive and relatively pain free are an extra special treat.
This morning I picked up my grand baby and spent a wonderful afternoon with her. Best medicine ever.
And then I took time to write. And it flowed! In a few hours I had close to 5000 words. This helped me not only catch up with my NaNoWriMo words, but helped boost my mental state. I love writing!
This will be a good week, and I look forward to seeing the conclusion of my book! #amwriting
– Heather
November 17, 2018
Day 9-17 NaNoWriMo- what happened??? #
I’ve still been writing, just not as much and I totally slacked off my blog. 
