Talli Roland's Blog, page 28

You Say Hello, and I Say... Wine

Monday's in the house. Woooo!
(Yes, that's forced excitement on my part).
First of all, happy fourth of July to my American friends! Hope you're enjoying fireworks, BBQs and FUN! My weekend was full of Wimbledon, strawberries and cream and editing. I'm pushing feverishly through revisions of Willow and with the Romantic Novelists' Association conference in Wales at the end of the week (yay!), I'm going to take a week's blogcation. I'll be back a week from today with tales of wine, wine and more wine. Oh, and maybe wine.
Until then, have a good one, everyone!

Screams and Beat-Up Trampolines: Tonya Kappes' Writing Process

Happy Canada Day! Please help yourself to yummy maple syrup, tourtiere, poutine and . . . um . . . Screech.

Today, I'd like to welcome guest blogger Tonya Kappes! Tonya is the author of the wonderful Carpe Bead'em and The Ladybug Jinx. Take it away, Tonya.

"Good morning. Your coffee is ready." My dear husband bends down and kisses my forehead before he heads out for work. "Have a great writing day."

I roll over and lazily look out the window over the lush Kentucky bluegrass meadow outside. The birds are singing, I see a few deer nipping at the berry trees, and the reality sets in….

"Hurry up. The kids' lunches need to be made. I'm late," my dear sweet husband screams, waking me from my wonderful dream.

I shield my eyes from the sun blasting through the window, and look out to see my dog having a barking match with the neighbor's dog, bikes thrown down, and balls all over the yard, not to mention a beat-up trampoline.

Before I get my foot on the floor, one of my four teenage boys run into the room needing a shirt ironed before school, and another one dangling a squeezed up tube of toothpaste in the air because I forgot to get some at the grocery store.

Now my real day can begins…

I wish I could say I go to my office with a cup of coffee in hand and read and respond to my emails, blog, check Facebook, Twitter, and the other social networking sites.

I don't. I send my teenage boys off to school and get ready for the day job that I have in order to pay the bills. I go to said day job, come home, take boys to various extra-curricular activities, and then my writing begins.

Sleep? What's that? I drink over TWO pots of coffee a day!

When Talli asked me about my writing process, I thought I was going to choke on my coffee. What writing process? The more I thought about it, the more I realized I do have a writing process. It's just not a traditional process.

Some writing days are better than other. But I do write everyday and usually 2k words, I just take it with me. I wrote my first book under a tree during my son's football practice.

My writing process begins with an idea, characters and I let them live in my world, in my head. I keep a writing journal with me (even at ballgames, honor clubs!). The story comes to life and I write. I write in school car line while waiting for my kids, the veterinarian's office, grocery store line, church (yes! God wants me to be successful and make people happy with my words.), I don't plot, or create really cool color coated charts. I just write. Generally by the end of the day, there are over 2k words that I have to put in my laptop…sleep? What's that?

Seriously though, if someone really wants to be a writer, you make time for it. And even though my writing process is different, it works for me. In six years, all my boys will be out the door, and then I'll have that dream of waking up looking out at the Kentucky bluegrass.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Mr TR Says...

Working at home every day, it's easy to become oblivious to my surroundings. As such, it's always a quite a treat when Mr TR makes his grand re-entry late-afternoon. Here's a few select utterances from the man himself:
1. Have you noticed how many coffee cups are on your desk? (I have a habit of collecting them.)
2. Did you realise you have the window wide open and it's been raining onto our leather sofa? (Oops. So that's what that dark patch is -- a water stain!)
3. Why is there bread burning in the toaster? (Because our toaster sucks?)
4. You've got chocolate on your face. (Goes without saying.)
5. Maybe it's time to plug in your mobile... it keeps beeping. (I know; I've been ignoring it all day.)
6. You do realise there's a big spider on the wall behind you, right? (Yes. I'm too lazy to kill it.)
What do you ignore when you're writing? Besides the obvious, that is (housework, kids, etc).

Full Exposure

Just to manage your expectations -- I'm not going to flash you from underneath my mac. So sorry. Maybe next time!
No, today I want to talk about the feeling of being exposed. Whether you're sending your first draft to beta readers or you're a published author putting a finished product into the world, you're still offering up a piece of work for judgement. And you can't help feeling that, by default, people are judging you.
It's hard to keep your distance when you've poured yourself into a novel. But I think it's important to remember that readers aren't commenting on you. You might be a great writer -- the next Dickens, even -- and still have readers who don't warm to your creations. Not everything you write will appeal to everyone. And it probably shouldn't!
So wrap yourself up in a hard, deflective metal (um... is there a name for that?), or gird your loins with Teflon, and remember: it's not all about you. It's about your novel. It still might not be fun to take, but I promise you: it will be easier!
How good are you at dealing with less than complimentary feedback?

Telly Time

It's Friday. How that happened, I don't know. Could it have been the blur of cocktails and glorious puddings that hastened the week's end?
I was supposed to have a guest blogger but they seem to have vanished into the ether. So today, I thought it'd be interesting to present a snapshot of telly time! I might be the only one, but I always find adverts from around the world really interesting. It's like a sneak pick into a different culture.
So please bear with me while I snap on the telly and wait for the next commercial break. Oh, while I'm waiting, I'll announce the winners of Catherine Ryan Howard's Self-Printed.
Hard copy goes to... India Drummond! Whee!Ebook goes to... Janice Horton!Another ebook copy goes to... Lani Wendt Young!
Congrats, ladies!
Right, here we go with the adverts (yes, this is what my blog has come to today).
Jonathon Ross hosts Penn and Teller: Fool Us! I admit I did like Jonathan Ross until he got together with Russel Brand and started behaving like a five-year-old. Think I'll take a miss on this one.
Butlins Happy Days. I'm not quite sure how to explain the concept of a holiday camp. It's a uniquely British thing where loads of parents bring their kids and eat fried food in the rain. Butlins has a chain of holiday camps and I can't help but snigger at the name!
DFS Sofa Half-Price Sale. Ever since I moved to the UK seven years ago, DFS has been having half-price sales. It's a wonder they're still in business.
Homebase. This is a DIY store that I'm quite fond of after they gave me and Mr TR a water-heater timer for free when they couldn't find the price. Score!
Evian, the official water of Wimbledon. I reckon Wimbledon doesn't need any more water this week after all the rain!
There you have it. Welcome to my advert world! Have a great weekend, everyone.

Here in Spirits

I'm not actually here! I'm over at Nas Dean's blog, talking about how much I love Friends. Until tomorrow, here are a few photos for you from yesterday's jaunts.
Massive thanks to Cat from HarperCollins and authors Fanny Blake and David Nobbs for making the day so wonderful.
See you tomorrow!

Self-Publishing the Not-Saying-Gatekeepers Way

Wooo, it's Wednesday! I've got a big day ahead: lunch in Covent Garden, afternoon tea at the Oxo Tower on the South Bank, and then a book launch at the Tower of London. Please send my be-sandalled feet your most positive vibes to make it through relatively unscathed.

Since I'm about and about, I'm delighted to welcome Catherine Ryan Howard to the blog. If you're contemplating self-publishing and you haven't been over to her blog, you need to get there right now!

Just a small announcement before I go: from now until Monday, my publisher has reduced The Hating Game on Kindle to 98p ($1.59 US). Yay for summer sales! If you need something for the beach, well... you know what I'm sayin'.

Right, over to Catherine!

Five years ago this summer, I moved from Ireland to Orlando, Florida, to start an eighteen-month training program in a Walt Disney World hotel.

Four years ago I started writing a book about it, and three years ago I finished it.

Two years ago I realised that thanks to the spectacularly niche audience for a book about an Irish girl working in Disney World, Space Shuttle launches and the challenges of long, thick hair in near 100% humidity, it was never going to get published, so eighteen months ago, I decided to do it myself.

It sounds a whole lot simpler than it actually was. Because truth be told, I was a certifiable self-publishing snob who thought that publishing your own book was nothing but a pointless and shameful pastime indulged in only by deluded losers...

I had never been traditionally published, but I was a self-proclaimed expert on the publishing world. For nearly ten years or ever since I turned 18, I'd been daydreaming non-stop about a six-figure deal and a well paid job you could do in your pyjamas, faithfully buying a new edition of The Writers and Artists Yearbook every year. This took pride of place in my (frighteningly) extensive collection of How To Write Books books: despite having never actually written a book, I knew exactly how to write a good query letter, create an elevator pitch and decipher a publishing contract. And as for formatting a manuscript – well, that would be my specialist subject should I ever end up on Mastermind. I signed myself up for workshops, sidled up to - gasp! - Real Life Writers at signings and other events and practised perfecting my pseudonym signature, just in case. I drew up a wish list of five literary agents and jotted down some notes about what questions I'd ask them when they called to offer me representation. (Because that's what the books said: Don't forget to ask them questions too. Makes you look professional.)

Clearly it was only a matter of time before I got published. All I had to do was write a book.

My expert and utterly unnecessary knowledge of the publishing world meant that whenever I heard of people self-publishing, I rolled my eyes so much that my pupils threatened to disappear forever into my head. I'd sneer at pictures in the local newspaper of what I assumed to be dangerously bored housewives proudly clutching their debut short story collections. How pathetic! There was extra sneering for those who hadn't even tried to get properly published, and were presumably blissfully unaware that there was, in fact, an established path to publication and they had foolishly wandered off in the opposite direction. Because at the end of the day, if your book was good enough for other people to read, it would eventually get published. Right?

Well, no – as I discovered when I started submitting Mousetrapped to publishers. I got pretty much the same answer wherever I went: we enjoyed reading it and we think it's a good book, but there isn't a market for it. What they meant by this was if they – and "they" are Irish and/or UK publishing houses – edited, designed, printed and distributed a couple of thousand copies of the book, paying for all costs including the salaries of the staff who'd have to do it and royalties to me, chances are they wouldn't sell enough copies of it to recoup their investment. And publishing is a business after all.

But if I self-published it using a Print On Demand service – who allow you to upload your book for a very small fee and only print a copy of it when an order is placed – and e-book websites where no cost at all is involved, and I used these to pitch Mousetrapped to a global market and did everything I could to promote and sell it... well, maybe I would recoup my investment or even, dare I dream, make some money.

So that's what I did. I self-published a paperback using CreateSpace, and e-books using Amazon's Kindle Direct Platform and Smashwords.com.

But my years of sneering at self-publishers had – thankfully – left a mark. I knew that what I was doing was not making a book that looked like the ones I bought and read, that my book wouldn't be available in stores and that this story was not going to end with me wallpapering my office in real gold leaf. (Or even in Laura Ashley.) I didn't have a literary agent-shaped voodoo doll, didn't whine about editors not even "giving my book a chance!" and I refused to use the word gatekeepers. Nor did I moan about low e-book prices "devaluing my artistry", insist that everyone call me an "indie author" [very loud groan] or claim that by the end of next year, no one will even remember what – and it pains me to use this term, even like this – "dead tree books" looked like.

I was realistic. I was modest. And I did everything I could to make my book look right.

And I did okay. I released Mousetrapped in March 2010 and sometime this month I'll sell my 6,000th copy. I'm self-publishing another travel memoir, Backpacked, in September, and even self-publishing a novel the month after that.

But I'm not on the self-publishing cheer-leading squad, or giving up my dreams of traditional publication. All I'm saying is this: you too can self-publish without sounding like a bureau chief at the Self-Publishing Ministry of Truth, and sell enough copies to afford a few ink cartridges or even – if you're lucky – to write full-time.

All you need is are realistic expectations and some common sense. Oh – and to ban words like "gatekeepers" from your vocabulary. Forever.

Self-Printed: The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing is available now in paperback and e-book. Find out more on www.catherineryanhoward.com.

The lovely Catherine is offering one paperback copy of Self-Printed, sent anywhere in the world and three Self-Printed e-book from Smashwords.com (multiple formats available)! To be in with a chance, just leave a comment below.

Too Hot to Handle

Happy Monday!
Last year, Mr TR and I purchased some Scotch Bonnet chili peppers at our local supermarket. We like spice in our food and these were on special, so we grabbed them, figuring if they had anything to do with Scotland, they couldn't be tooooo spicy (apologies to anyone Scottish reading this, but the Scots aren't exactly known for their spicy food).
Mr TR mixed them into some beef mince and 30 minutes later, dinner was ready. One bite into the meal, our eyes were streaming and our mouths were on fire. Little did we know that Scotch peppers are some of the hottest in the world. Lesson learned: never take anything at face value!
As a reader, I've learned not to do the same. I've put aside some of my misconceptions about science fiction and enjoyed some wonderful novels; similarly with YA. I've soldiered on through boring-looking literary fiction and found it rewarding, and I've purchased dodgy-covered self-published novels that are amazing!
Do you have misconceptions about any genres, authors, or types of books? And have you managed to overcome them?
PS - The next few weeks will be 'blogging light'. I'll be posting on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays until I've finished the bulk of my revisions. Drop by on Wednesday, when Catherine Ryan Howard will share her self-printing wisdom and give away copies of her new book! And on Friday, Australian Michael Hearle will also be giving away copies of his new YA novel.

Wonderfully Profane

I'm posting a bit late today due to a lengthy bleaching session at the salon. One of the perils of platinum hair.
Anyway, thank you all so much for the wonderfully supportive comments yesterday. Now, this is why I blog! I've met such a great community of people through this blog and I really appreciate you reading my drivel and responding.
It's Friday, it's raining, and something tells me it's wine o'clock (newly christened as TalliBell... you'll have to ask Jess about that one!). So, for your viewing pleasure, I present the following. You may have seen it around and -- if you're not a big fan of profanity -- you may not find it amusing. But you have to admit, it's killer marketing!
Have a great weekend.

The Curse of the Second Novel

You'd think that after getting published, securing positive reviews and even becoming a bestselling author on Amazon, writing a second novel would be a breeze, right?
Well, you'd be wrong.
Because writing the second novel, in my humble opinion, is even harder. Now, you have something to live up to. Now, you're lucky enough to have people who've loved your first work. And now, you know how critical some readers can be.
It's not only me -- I've heard over and over again how writing Novel Number Two for publication can mess with your mind. All the excitement of 'firsts' with your debut (I can't wait to get a book out there! I can't wait to hold it my hands!) is now replaced with doubt. (What if it sucks? What if it doesn't sell as well? What if... *insert your own personal demon here*?)
Caught up in the seemingly endless cycle of revisions, I admit I've struggled with this over the past few weeks. But, as I've been reminded by those close to me, all I can do is my best and make my work the strongest I can. After that, I won't have any control over it, but right now, I do. Enjoy it!
Well, I'm trying.
Any words of wisdom from my blogging buds? I could use some right about now!