Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 59

Caged!

As a writer, my mind is always filled with thoughts and ideas, stories, characters and more. The urge to sit and write them all down, to explore each and every one it great. A pull even; a compulsion. To be kept from doing such is a strain. It aches in my bones when I am unable to write, or to read, to embed myself in the creative world.

I sit here, behind my desk, in an office space that never changes, faced with another day of work that will closely resemble the work I did yesterday. The white desk, the white walls, cheap, oily coffee and email from customers with questions or queries that I have answered for someone else already, in some way shape or form. I sit here and feel trapped. I am caged in, and my creative side is pounding at the walls, screaming to be set free. To be allowed to embrace this life we live and to do it on my own terms.

Now, I have a family; a wife and four wonderful children. I am the only one of us in paid employment. The financial side of life falls on my shoulders, and at this point in time, creativity will not pay the bills. So I enter this cage every day, stepping into the dark world of monotonous drudgery because I must. I must do what is needed to support my family, but my heart will never cave, it will never surrender to the demands of the corporate world. I will never be Mr. Company, for I am Alex, a writer… I am an artists, a creator. I am free in my mind, and will work every day to ensure that if not me, but my children will be able to live their lives free, doing what it is that they love.

Life has a habit of pushing us down, it makes us fight for what we want, tests us every step of the way. I certainly do not intend to let it win, and will fight to my last breath to succeed in doing what I do, and I hope that you will to.

When you wake up in the morning, and look in the mirror, see the success that yesterday brought, the silver lining. See the chances and opportunities in the day ahead. Whatever set backs life may throw at you, just open your arms, catch them and throw them back even harder.

Life may hit hard, but you are quicker on your feet, and if you keep on pushing, you will come through the other side stronger, better than ever and ready to grab what it is you have been fighting for with both hands.

Start every day by telling yourself you will succeed, and end it by thinking about each and every small success you have made. Life is not limited to one single moment of defining glory, but multiple small events, some so tiny you may not see them until you look back for them.

Don’t spend your life in a cage. If there is something you want, fight for it. Fight every day, and if you get knocked back a few steps, just dust yourself off, and come back with a new angle, and new power. Just keep fighting, because only you can set the limit on your abilities, nobody else.You and only you hold the key to the cage, so use it, and run free!

Writer, Motivator, Mother, Jedi…. Hero – Alex Laybourne Interviews Kristen Lamb

Today it is my absolute pleasure to welcome on of my own personal hero(in)es to my blog. There are certain people in life that you have on that ‘dinner party’ list, and my guest today is one of those names.

The bestselling author, and social media Jedi herself, Kristen Lamb has stopped by for a coffee and a chat.

This is a lady whose advice I have devoured time and time again, and I cannot put in words how excited I am to conduct this interview.

1.      You are a writer, blogger, teacher and motivational / public speaker, which of these do you see as your true calling, or are they all too closely related to separate?

I feel my true calling is to help writers any way I can (and make them laugh). My goal is to prepare writers in a holistic way. What good are lessons with no support to help writers with follow-through?

Writing is a lonely business and friends and family are generally not as supportive as we’d like them to be. Additionally, even in the new paradigm, it takes TIME to see success. The waiting period can be maddening and a prime time to get discouraged. I speak and blog to keep writers pressing, to keep them remembering WHY they’re sacrificing.

Also, we all make mistakes. I made most of them, too. Probably will make more. This is why laughter is so vital. We are not alone. We all struggle, have doubts and make oopses along the way, but together we are stronger.

2.      Before all of this started, you worked in international sales, right?

Yes, I sold cardboard. I had a nine state territory and Northern Mexico. I wish I could tell you I was good at it, but I don’t like to lie. There were a lot of outside factors beyond my control that made the job stressful and very difficult. I was young and green and made a lot of mistakes, but I feel those were genuine blessings. When we fail, we learn far more. A lot of what makes WANA work is I learned a lot of what DOESN’T work.

3.      How did that background help you when it comes to the whole indie scene, networking and promotions?

When I was in sales, I learned the value of listening. REALLY listening. Often employers hire a certain personality type for sales, a personality that is outgoing and gregarious because they are the ones bold enough to pursue the customer. Yet, I would watch how the salespeople were so busy being entertaining, that they weren’t listening to the customer. I started noticing even how I was guilty of the same thing. I needed to learn to shut up and ask more questions and then LISTEN to the reply.

Also corporate would make decisions before even asking customers what they wanted. They became too focused on price. The problem with that tactic is there is always someone willing to undercut you. Also, people who buy from us only because we’re cheap generally are not the most loyal. Drop prices low enough and quality always suffers.

In the indie world, too many authors are fixated on non-stop marketing, when actually listening to people and talking to them would actually work better. When we fail to connect with people in relationship, all we have left is price and then it’s just a race to the bottom.

4.      You are the author of two bestselling books – We Are Not Alone – The Writer’s Guide to Social Media  and Are You There Blog, It’s Me, Writer. What prompted you to leave sales and write these books?

I’d actually left sales many years before these books. The stress of the job cratered my health. I decided to become a writer because I was tired of being sick all the time. A steady paycheck and family approval were no longer worth it.

I worked as a technical writer, and copy editor. I also did a lot of content and line editing for authors. I wanted to be a novelist and actually won awards with two novels (that I will one day publish, LOL).

I knew social media would be a game-changer, but when I saw how it was being taught to writers, I was horrified. Most tactics made writers no better than spam bots or were trying to fundamentally change the writers’ personalities. We are artists, not “power marketers.” So, I decided to stop complaining and write my own books.

5.      Did you ever expect them to have the impact that they have had?

Actually, no. And none of the success is me. It’s ALL the WANAs. I learned so much from them and it was a surprising blessing to be able to found the community I wished I’d had when I was new and alone.

6.      It is fair to say that these books have changed your life.

Yes. Definitely. I’ve become a much better leader, a better listener, far more patient and a lot happier. There is no way to describe the joy I feel when WANA changes a writer’s life. To watch a writer go from hating social media to being a successful blogger that rocks social media and enjoys the new paradigm. Too many writers are frightened of what, with the correct approach, can be a Golden Age. It’s wonderful to see them be scared and alone then finally find a home with WANA, connect with their tribe and people who love and support them.

7.      Many people, myself included look up to you; you are by your own admission, a social media Jedi, and a guru to writers the world over.

Actually Gene Lempp called me the Social Media Jedi and I loved it. I will use it as long as George Lucas doesn’t find me, LOL. I hate the term guru. It just seems any knucklehead with a computer can call themselves a guru, and it reminds me of some skinny guy wearing diapers. I am happy to be an expert, a maven and even a Jedi, but guru? Eh.

8.      How was it for you when you first entered this world? Was it just trial and error, or did the whole social media, book promoting world come naturally to you?

I was going to call my first book, “I Did All The Dumb Stuff So You Don’t Have To.” I made all the mistakes. I followed “gurus” of the time, even though something in my gut didn’t jive with what they were saying. When the tactics didn’t work or they were so time-sucking-intensive I wanted to throw myself into a wood-chipper, I made up my own stuff.

I am always learning. I think this is why it is important to listen. Even “regular” people have some profound observations and great wisdom. It’s why I always try to approach what I do with as much humility as I can muster. I don’t know everything. There are a lot of people smarter than me. Writers are, by nature, creative, so listen thoughtfully when they raise questions or give opinions or even disagree.

9.      Was there anybody around that gave you advice the way you give it to us? Who trained this Jedi?

Not really. I read a lot of books. Not just social media books, but books on psychology, economics, history, communication, neuroscience, leadership, sales, business, etc. In social media, I took a lot from people like Seth Godin, Robert Greene, Malcolm Gladwell, and John Maxwell. With craft, I read a LOT of books by experts like James Scott Bell, Les Edgerton, Donald Maass, Christopher Vogler, Larry Brooks, and especially the late Blake Snyder. Bob Mayer was a huge turning point in that he gave me my opportunity to publish my two books and I am eternally grateful.

10.     You created the Twitter Hashtag #MyWana, and talk about it on your website, and in your books. Can you summarize what (My)Wana is in just one (or two) words?

Since so many marketing people are fascinated with automation, it can make it tough to connect with REAL people on Twitter, to forge friendships and get the emotional support we often lack in real life. #MyWANA was created to be a water cooler. Share good news, doubts, ask questions, cheer one another on, have a CONVERSATION.

11.     Do you believe that people can actually sell books through Twitter, or do you see it more as a networking / platform building tool?

The sales won’t come directly. Traditional marketing is all but invisible in this new Huxleyan world. We are deluged. There are no gatekeepers and anyone with a computer can try to sell stuff to us non-stop 24/7. I think Twitter is for networking and cultivating relationships.

I was a Rotarian for 7 years. We all met once a week for lunch and to hear a speaker. We cleaned up parks together and held fund-raisers and gave dictionaries to underprivileged kids. Not once did someone come to a meeting, set up a table and start selling stuff, but we all went to each other when we needed what that person offered. When we needed a dentist, an insurance agent, a lawyer, a massage therapist, a florist, a photographer, we went to the Rotarians we KNEW. Twitter is the same. The sales will come, but not by beating people over the head with ads.

12.     Do you think many people actually know how to use twitter? At times it looks like my feed is nothing but a constant stream of BUY ME shouts. It can be like standing in the middle of a London Market.

I don’t think a lot of people know how to use it properly and I think there are a lot of gurus out there teaching bad tactics. I had one who nearly ruined #MyWANA. She automated all of her tweets with the #MyWANA from FOUR IDENTITIES. She was also an “author marketing coach” so she was teaching people who took her classes to do the same thing. We were nearly capsized from automated tweets. It took six weeks of ruthlessly reporting them as spam to clean up #MyWANA and restore the community, but we still have to stay vigilant, because there are plenty of gurus teaching this kind of nonsense.

All classes at WANA International are taught using WANA methods. We are dead set against spam and my personal preference is NO automation. If a few want to use a little, that’s okay, but DO NOT USE #s. It’s uncool and can poison a hashtag group very quickly. I am not a fan of ads even though we are running one for WANACon. It’s likely to be the only ad we ever run because we needed it for some lawyer stuff regarding trademarking WANA.

13.     Facebook or Twitter, which site do you thinks is the more powerful all around tool for writers?

I think blogging is the best use of time. Blogging harnesses our strength—writing. It’s also something we can control. FB or Twitter could die out, but our blogs will remain and they can grow over time to bring exponential dividends. I think authors actually need all three—blogging, Twitter and FB, but the WANA way of using these is very simple, fun and leaves plenty of time to WRITE MORE BOOKS!

14.     Do you agree that readers read books in a different way to writers? Should we (writers), therefore look to spend less time friending other writers, and look to add more readers to our social media circles?

Writers are too inbred. We get on social media and friend writers and talk to writers and talk about writing and regular people just don’t care. “Reader Group” is code for “bunch of writers trying to find all the readers.” Talk to regular people. THOSE are the readers. Who cares if someone only buys two books a year if they are YOUR BOOKS? Friends and family will be some of our best salespeople, yet I constantly see writers using a social media scalpel to remove “regular people who don’t care about my writing.” Then they have a network full of writers and want to know where all the readers are. YOU CUT THEM OUT and NEVER TALKED TO THEM.

We have to stop expecting “readers” to come to us and we need to go to them. We are talking about query letters and Smashwords and Amazon and agents and then wonder why we aren’t connecting with readers. Try talking about some stuff THEY like for a change. We need to start a dialogue on mutual ground, then that leads to a relationship which will eventually translate into sales (much like Rotary). Spend less time being interesting and more time being INTERESTED.

15.     I have four children and a full time job to juggle alongside my writing, so I can understand how busy life gets, but you, you are a business woman, a wife, a mother, a role model to all of us. How do you find time to juggle all of this and still stay sane?

Um, who said I was sane? You have to let some things go. I used to always have perfect hair and makeup and matching clothes and now I live in yoga pants and a scrunchee. It is almost Valentines Day and my Christmas tree is still up. My toddler’s nursery school wanted the moms to send personalized Valentines for each of the kids? I dropped twelve bucks for small heart-shaped boxes of chocolate because I didn’t have the time to sit and fill out Valentines for kids who can’t yet read.

Yes, I am THAT mom.

I gave up Rotary, movies, most television and most Saturdays to do this, but I love it. I think we get this Martha Stewart vision of what we need to be and it just isn’t reality. Yes, my garage needs to be cleaned out and we won’t even mention the attic. All of my drawers are junk drawers and my shoes are so old they are falling apart because I don’t shop either.

But I do focus on what is important. My faith, my husband, my son, my writers and one day of rest a week. The rest? It can wait. Besides, it makes great blogging material. Expect a blog about my Christmas Valentines Tree.

16.     Well, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me Kristen; I am honored to have you stop by.

Happy to serve!

   

 

Kristen Lamb is the author of the #1 best-selling books “We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media” and “Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer.” She is represented by Russ Galen at S.G.G. Literary, NYC.

Kristen has helped hundreds of writers find success using social media. Her methods are responsible for selling hundreds of thousands of books. She has helped all levels of writers from mega authors to self-published unknowns attain amazing results. She is the founder of the WANA movement, the founder and CEO of WANA International and creator of WANATribe, the social network for creatives.

Don’t forget that you can still buy your tickets to WANACon 2013 and be part of something special. WANACon is a writing conference with a difference. It is online, and open to everybody across the globe. No more sitting there in a dark room sulking because all of the good writing conferences are in America and you can’t afford to go. For $125 you can be part of something special, something bigger than any other conference out there. To read more about WANACon, the Sunday Pajama Party and all the prizes you and your jammies could win, read Kristen’s post, and buy your tickets today.

Interview: Kristen Lamb – Writer, Motivator, Mother, Jedi…. Hero

Today it is my absolute pleasure to welcome on of my own personal hero(in)es to my blog. There are certain people in life that you have on that ‘dinner party’ list, and my guest today is one of those names.

The bestselling author, and social media Jedi herself, Kristen Lamb has stopped by for a coffee and a chat.

This is a lady whose advice I have devoured time and time again, and I cannot put in words how excited I am to conduct this interview.

1.      You are a writer, blogger, teacher and motivational / public speaker, which of these do you see as your true calling, or are they all too closely related to separate?

I feel my true calling is to help writers any way I can (and make them laugh). My goal is to prepare writers in a holistic way. What good are lessons with no support to help writers with follow-through?

Writing is a lonely business and friends and family are generally not as supportive as we’d like them to be. Additionally, even in the new paradigm, it takes TIME to see success. The waiting period can be maddening and a prime time to get discouraged. I speak and blog to keep writers pressing, to keep them remembering WHY they’re sacrificing.

Also, we all make mistakes. I made most of them, too. Probably will make more. This is why laughter is so vital. We are not alone. We all struggle, have doubts and make oopses along the way, but together we are stronger.

2.      Before all of this started, you worked in international sales, right?

Yes, I sold cardboard. I had a nine state territory and Northern Mexico. I wish I could tell you I was good at it, but I don’t like to lie. There were a lot of outside factors beyond my control that made the job stressful and very difficult. I was young and green and made a lot of mistakes, but I feel those were genuine blessings. When we fail, we learn far more. A lot of what makes WANA work is I learned a lot of what DOESN’T work.

3.      How did that background help you when it comes to the whole indie scene, networking and promotions?

When I was in sales, I learned the value of listening. REALLY listening. Often employers hire a certain personality type for sales, a personality that is outgoing and gregarious because they are the ones bold enough to pursue the customer. Yet, I would watch how the salespeople were so busy being entertaining, that they weren’t listening to the customer. I started noticing even how I was guilty of the same thing. I needed to learn to shut up and ask more questions and then LISTEN to the reply.

Also corporate would make decisions before even asking customers what they wanted. They became too focused on price. The problem with that tactic is there is always someone willing to undercut you. Also, people who buy from us only because we’re cheap generally are not the most loyal. Drop prices low enough and quality always suffers.

In the indie world, too many authors are fixated on non-stop marketing, when actually listening to people and talking to them would actually work better. When we fail to connect with people in relationship, all we have left is price and then it’s just a race to the bottom.

4.      You are the author of two bestselling books – We Are Not Alone – The Writer’s Guide to Social Media  and Are You There Blog, It’s Me, Writer. What prompted you to leave sales and write these books?

I’d actually left sales many years before these books. The stress of the job cratered my health. I decided to become a writer because I was tired of being sick all the time. A steady paycheck and family approval were no longer worth it.

I worked as a technical writer, and copy editor. I also did a lot of content and line editing for authors. I wanted to be a novelist and actually won awards with two novels (that I will one day publish, LOL).

I knew social media would be a game-changer, but when I saw how it was being taught to writers, I was horrified. Most tactics made writers no better than spam bots or were trying to fundamentally change the writers’ personalities. We are artists, not “power marketers.” So, I decided to stop complaining and write my own books.

5.      Did you ever expect them to have the impact that they have had?

Actually, no. And none of the success is me. It’s ALL the WANAs. I learned so much from them and it was a surprising blessing to be able to found the community I wished I’d had when I was new and alone.

6.      It is fair to say that these books have changed your life.

Yes. Definitely. I’ve become a much better leader, a better listener, far more patient and a lot happier. There is no way to describe the joy I feel when WANA changes a writer’s life. To watch a writer go from hating social media to being a successful blogger that rocks social media and enjoys the new paradigm. Too many writers are frightened of what, with the correct approach, can be a Golden Age. It’s wonderful to see them be scared and alone then finally find a home with WANA, connect with their tribe and people who love and support them.

7.      Many people, myself included look up to you; you are by your own admission, a social media Jedi, and a guru to writers the world over.

Actually Gene Lempp called me the Social Media Jedi and I loved it. I will use it as long as George Lucas doesn’t find me, LOL. I hate the term guru. It just seems any knucklehead with a computer can call themselves a guru, and it reminds me of some skinny guy wearing diapers. I am happy to be an expert, a maven and even a Jedi, but guru? Eh.

8.      How was it for you when you first entered this world? Was it just trial and error, or did the whole social media, book promoting world come naturally to you?

I was going to call my first book, “I Did All The Dumb Stuff So You Don’t Have To.” I made all the mistakes. I followed “gurus” of the time, even though something in my gut didn’t jive with what they were saying. When the tactics didn’t work or they were so time-sucking-intensive I wanted to throw myself into a wood-chipper, I made up my own stuff.

I am always learning. I think this is why it is important to listen. Even “regular” people have some profound observations and great wisdom. It’s why I always try to approach what I do with as much humility as I can muster. I don’t know everything. There are a lot of people smarter than me. Writers are, by nature, creative, so listen thoughtfully when they raise questions or give opinions or even disagree.

9.      Was there anybody around that gave you advice the way you give it to us? Who trained this Jedi?

Not really. I read a lot of books. Not just social media books, but books on psychology, economics, history, communication, neuroscience, leadership, sales, business, etc. In social media, I took a lot from people like Seth Godin, Robert Greene, Malcolm Gladwell, and John Maxwell. With craft, I read a LOT of books by experts like James Scott Bell, Les Edgerton, Donald Maass, Christopher Vogler, Larry Brooks, and especially the late Blake Snyder. Bob Mayer was a huge turning point in that he gave me my opportunity to publish my two books and I am eternally grateful.

10.     You created the Twitter Hashtag #MyWana, and talk about it on your website, and in your books. Can you summarize what (My)Wana is in just one (or two) words?

Since so many marketing people are fascinated with automation, it can make it tough to connect with REAL people on Twitter, to forge friendships and get the emotional support we often lack in real life. #MyWANA was created to be a water cooler. Share good news, doubts, ask questions, cheer one another on, have a CONVERSATION.

11.     Do you believe that people can actually sell books through Twitter, or do you see it more as a networking / platform building tool?

The sales won’t come directly. Traditional marketing is all but invisible in this new Huxleyan world. We are deluged. There are no gatekeepers and anyone with a computer can try to sell stuff to us non-stop 24/7. I think Twitter is for networking and cultivating relationships.

I was a Rotarian for 7 years. We all met once a week for lunch and to hear a speaker. We cleaned up parks together and held fund-raisers and gave dictionaries to underprivileged kids. Not once did someone come to a meeting, set up a table and start selling stuff, but we all went to each other when we needed what that person offered. When we needed a dentist, an insurance agent, a lawyer, a massage therapist, a florist, a photographer, we went to the Rotarians we KNEW. Twitter is the same. The sales will come, but not by beating people over the head with ads.

12.     Do you think many people actually know how to use twitter? At times it looks like my feed is nothing but a constant stream of BUY ME shouts. It can be like standing in the middle of a London Market.

I don’t think a lot of people know how to use it properly and I think there are a lot of gurus out there teaching bad tactics. I had one who nearly ruined #MyWANA. She automated all of her tweets with the #MyWANA from FOUR IDENTITIES. She was also an “author marketing coach” so she was teaching people who took her classes to do the same thing. We were nearly capsized from automated tweets. It took six weeks of ruthlessly reporting them as spam to clean up #MyWANA and restore the community, but we still have to stay vigilant, because there are plenty of gurus teaching this kind of nonsense.

All classes at WANA International are taught using WANA methods. We are dead set against spam and my personal preference is NO automation. If a few want to use a little, that’s okay, but DO NOT USE #s. It’s uncool and can poison a hashtag group very quickly. I am not a fan of ads even though we are running one for WANACon. It’s likely to be the only ad we ever run because we needed it for some lawyer stuff regarding trademarking WANA.

13.     Facebook or Twitter, which site do you thinks is the more powerful all around tool for writers?

I think blogging is the best use of time. Blogging harnesses our strength—writing. It’s also something we can control. FB or Twitter could die out, but our blogs will remain and they can grow over time to bring exponential dividends. I think authors actually need all three—blogging, Twitter and FB, but the WANA way of using these is very simple, fun and leaves plenty of time to WRITE MORE BOOKS!

14.     Do you agree that readers read books in a different way to writers? Should we (writers), therefore look to spend less time friending other writers, and look to add more readers to our social media circles?

Writers are too inbred. We get on social media and friend writers and talk to writers and talk about writing and regular people just don’t care. “Reader Group” is code for “bunch of writers trying to find all the readers.” Talk to regular people. THOSE are the readers. Who cares if someone only buys two books a year if they are YOUR BOOKS? Friends and family will be some of our best salespeople, yet I constantly see writers using a social media scalpel to remove “regular people who don’t care about my writing.” Then they have a network full of writers and want to know where all the readers are. YOU CUT THEM OUT and NEVER TALKED TO THEM.

We have to stop expecting “readers” to come to us and we need to go to them. We are talking about query letters and Smashwords and Amazon and agents and then wonder why we aren’t connecting with readers. Try talking about some stuff THEY like for a change. We need to start a dialogue on mutual ground, then that leads to a relationship which will eventually translate into sales (much like Rotary). Spend less time being interesting and more time being INTERESTED.

15.     I have four children and a full time job to juggle alongside my writing, so I can understand how busy life gets, but you, you are a business woman, a wife, a mother, a role model to all of us. How do you find time to juggle all of this and still stay sane?

Um, who said I was sane? You have to let some things go. I used to always have perfect hair and makeup and matching clothes and now I live in yoga pants and a scrunchee. It is almost Valentines Day and my Christmas tree is still up. My toddler’s nursery school wanted the moms to send personalized Valentines for each of the kids? I dropped twelve bucks for small heart-shaped boxes of chocolate because I didn’t have the time to sit and fill out Valentines for kids who can’t yet read.

Yes, I am THAT mom.

I gave up Rotary, movies, most television and most Saturdays to do this, but I love it. I think we get this Martha Stewart vision of what we need to be and it just isn’t reality. Yes, my garage needs to be cleaned out and we won’t even mention the attic. All of my drawers are junk drawers and my shoes are so old they are falling apart because I don’t shop either.

But I do focus on what is important. My faith, my husband, my son, my writers and one day of rest a week. The rest? It can wait. Besides, it makes great blogging material. Expect a blog about my Christmas Valentines Tree.

16.     Well, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me Kristen; I am honored to have you stop by.

Happy to serve!

   

 

Kristen Lamb is the author of the #1 best-selling books “We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media” and “Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer.” She is represented by Russ Galen at S.G.G. Literary, NYC.

Kristen has helped hundreds of writers find success using social media. Her methods are responsible for selling hundreds of thousands of books. She has helped all levels of writers from mega authors to self-published unknowns attain amazing results. She is the founder of the WANA movement, the founder and CEO of WANA International and creator of WANATribe, the social network for creatives.

Don’t forget that you can still buy your tickets to WANACon 2013 and be part of something special. WANACon is a writing conference with a difference. It is online, and open to everybody across the globe. No more sitting there in a dark room sulking because all of the good writing conferences are in America and you can’t afford to go. For $125 you can be part of something special, something bigger than any other conference out there. To read more about WANACon, the Sunday Pajama Party and all the prizes you and your jammies could win, read Kristen’s post, and buy your tickets today.

The Year of You

We are now a month and a half into the year 2013, and have just entered the Year of the Snake according to the Chinese calendar, but what about if you were to forget about that. What if I said to you that today is not February 13th, but day 01 in the Year of You.

We spend so much of our time running around, obsessing about time. We have to get up on time, get to work on time, if we run late we get annoyed, stressed. We spend out time running around, pleasing other people and before we know it, another year has gone by.

In the blink of an eye you will wake up one morning and think… where did the time go. Why did I not do it differently?

Life gives you nothing, it takes, and it will keep taking until you have nothing left to give, and then it will keep you down. Don’t let it. Turn the tables and make life work for you.

The dawn of the Year of You is your chance to take a stand, reclaim your own world, your own time. Make it yours. Reach out and grab what it is you want most in life, because if you don’t try, you will never succeed.

Living life is about failing. It is about trying things, about reaching for the stars. It is about falling… time and time again. Because if you never learn to get back up, to pick up and pieces and come back stronger, you can never truly achieve.

Nobody gets everything they want, there is always something more. We may not know it at the time, but true satisfaction is impossible, or rather it should be. We should always want more, want to tweak something or other for the better, to grow. The moment we allow ourselves to become stagnant is the moment that we are lost, and left behind. It doesn’t mean that the game is over, it just means that you have to fight that much harder.

Right now is the best possible moment for you. This very day is waiting for you to take to your feet, set your stance and grab life by the balls, because nobody else is going to do it for you.

Whatever it is you want, love, friendship, money or success, it makes no difference. True happiness is something only you can judge, and only you can give yourself. One things cannot exist alone however, so to experience the true joy of your own determination, you must brace for the pain that is inevitable. Do not avoid it when it comes, do not hide or back down, but meet it head one. Smash it down to its knees, and crush it, for once you crest that wave, your path it will once again appear.

I have nothing to say

I cannot thing of anything to say. My head is just overflowing with stuff as it is .

Maybe tomorrow.

 

Sneak Peek: Diaries of the Damned

Paul Larkin sat in his seat and fastened his seatbelt. His body was caked with sweat and dry blood. His ears rang from the gunshots, and his ankle swelling again, remnants of an injury he acquired jumping from the first floor window of his suburban home; at least, it used to be suburbia, before everything went to shit.

He sat back and let out a long, deep breath. Shock threatened to take hold of him, and so he closed his eyes and waited. The plane filled up, and the cries of those refused admittance echoed down the walkway, swiftly followed by the sound of their execution.

Paul spared but the most fleeting of moments thinking about it. He found it strange how killing and death had become such a large part of his life.

“Excuse me,” A fragile sounding voice stirred Paul from the calm place he had just started to settle into. “I believe this is my seat.” An elderly woman, late seventies at best stood before him, her face was smeared with blood, while one eye had been covered by a filthy rag that had been hastily secured to her face with what looked like Duct Tape.

“I’m sorry…” Paul asked, confused.

“Seat 17b, this is my seat.” The woman waved the ticket in Paul’s face.

Paul said nothing, but gave the woman a look which screamed, ‘the world as we knew it has ended, are you seriously going to complain that I’m in your seat’. If she could read his expression, she showed no signs of it, and so with another heavy sigh, this one of frustration, Paul undid his belt and scooted one seat over.

“Thank you. I don’t mean to be rude, but after all that has happened, I feel the need to remain proper about some things.” She said as she sat down. There was an odor to her person that Paul found distinctly repelling, but still, she had clearly gotten through the scanners at the gate.

“It’s fine.” He answered her, closing his eyes once more.

The seat he had taken was a window seat, just before the wings of the Boeing 737 that the military had been using as an emergency evacuation vehicle for the past two weeks. Looking out across the tarmac, Paul saw the army standing guard at the perimeter of the small airfield. The sun had begun to disappear beneath the horizon, and in the dull afterglow of yet another survived day, Paul found himself staring at the firework like bursts of gunfire and wondering how it could have all gone so wrong, so quickly.

He tried to stop himself, but before he knew it, his mind was cast back. He saw his wife, Julia andtheir two children, Doug and Maddy. They were outside, Paul was stood behind the barbeque, and Julia busied herself by setting the table, while their kids played in the garden, enjoying the summer weather. He blinked, trying to force the image away. It worked, but was replaced by the memory of his wife’s battered, bloody corpse lying on the floor in their living room. Her face blackened and swollen by the sickness, her body broken from the repeated strikes he had delivered with his son’s baseball bat. Her blood dotted his clothes, his face, everything.

“Daddy, I don’t feel well,” his daughter called. Paul had turned around just in time to see the blood flow from her mouth like vomit. She collapsed to the floor, the convulsions already upon her. His son followed suit within the hour; their small bodies were an easy target for the virus.

“I love you,” Paul had whispered as he hugged them both tightly, and then pushed their heads beneath the surface of the water. They struggled of course, but their bodies were too weak from the disease to provide much resistance. His daughter fought the longest. “You’re with the angels now” Paul whispered to them as he dried their faces, dressed them in clean clothes and laid them in their beds.

The sound of an explosion within the terminal rocked the plane and pulled Paul from the nightmare. The sun had fallen behind the trees, yet the plane did not seem anywhere near full.

“Close those doors.” The lone flight attendant called out, running down the aisle, pushing passengers out of their way without a second thought. “Close them now,” She screamed again just as the roar of machine gun fire reached them.

The screams of those still in the walkway cut out as the doors were closed and the engines roared into life.

“Ladies and Gentlemen please take your seats, we are making an immediate departure.” The now out of breath young women spoke into the intercom. “God help us all,” she added.

The plane shuddered into life and rolled away from the gate. The coupling that connected it to the terminal was still filled with bodies. Paul watched them cascade to the floor like lemmings; a human waterfall. “Lucky bastards,” he whispered as he stared at their still, lifeless forms.

The plane rolled onto the runway, and stopped. They sat there for ten minutes, and then, just as people started to get nervous, three armored Jeeps came to a screeching halt either side of the aircraft, the machine guns mounted on the top of each firing into the unseen enemy.

“Oh God, they got past the perimeter fences.” A voice cried out. This was accompanied by a wave of panic that saw people leap from their seats. Paul however, sat still; shock and weariness had overcome him. As a result, he saw the guns cease firing, and the gunner of the car nearest his window waved his hands in a signal which even Paul understood meant “Get going, NOW!”

Paul opened his mouth to warn the panicked mob, but he was too late. The engines roared and the plane sped down the runway. Bodies were thrown to the floor and into their seats as the plane gathered momentum. Through his window Paul watched as the bodies of those that had caused the delay were mown down by the speeding jet. Even that wouldn’t be enough to kill them all, but what did it matter now; they were airborne and the legions of the undead were behind them.

Looking back, Paul was just in time to see the main concourse explode in a ball of flame. The mushrooming ball of fire looked, for a few seconds at least, as though it would engulf the plane too, but their ascent was steep; too steep to be safe. They avoided the blast, but the resultant shock wave shook them enough to dislodge an extra round of screams from his fellow passengers.

Once they leveled out, and everybody had pulled themselves to their feet, an eerie hush fell over the cabin. Nobody moved nobody spoke. They had all lost people to the disease, they had all killed as a result of it, and while they were alive, the world beneath them was locked in a bitter fight for survival. The city burned around them, the air dark with ash and soot. The military presence was immense, tanks, aircraft, and platoons of men, armed to the nines with every weapon that could be issued. They had a lot to mourn, and a lot to be thankful for.

Horror Art: Nightmares

I didn’t sleep much last night, and don’t have the required competencies yet this morning to write a real post, so here are some more lovely images I have found on Google.

The theme for the day is Nightmares,

Am I Really Already Retro – Birthdays and the Aging of the Next Generation

As we move through life, there are certain moments that hit us, which stop us in our tracks and make us think ‘Damn, I’m getting old.’

No such event accomplishes this better than a child’s birthday.

This past weekend, my oldest son turned 6. While I cannot believe that so much time has already gone by, but it was not this number that brought home my age, but rather one of the gifts he received.

His uncle bought him a collection of games for his new Xbox 360. ‘Retro Games’ I have gone through the list, and all of these games were made in or after 1991. It includes all of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, which my son loves to play.

Looking at them, I can remember when they were the height of graphics and the gameplay was fast and out of this world. Now, these piece of my youth are being repackaged and sold as freaking RETRO!! I’m 28, but that makes me feel old!

I don’t care about age, it is just a number after all, but seeing items of my youth labeled as retro still hurt a little.

On the other hand, the two of us had hours of fun running around the two-dimensional world chasing rings and leaping over robotic fish, lobsters and insects of all descriptions.

Out of it all, I think the thing that hurt the most was that half of the time… he beat me.

If You Don’t Know Just Ask!

How many of us had that sentence thrown around during our classroom years. It seemed to be the teacher’s pet phrase of choice whenever the broached a subject that was bound to confuse or full on mystify us.

“If you don’t understand anything, just ask. The chances are that others are just as confused as you are.”

Yet there we sat, a classroom filled of glassy-eyed empty minded fools, nodding in all the right places, hoping that they asked the person sitting next to us what the answer was, while secretly planning which smart kid you would sit next to come test time.

Be honest now…

There go, don’t you feel better…

 

Out of all of the things I learned at school, this nugget of information was perhaps the most valuable.

It is remarkable to see how often you raise an issue, and see how many other people are in the same boat.

The writing community is rather close-knit, everybody is there for each other, to lend a helping hand, an ear, or perhaps a shoulder to cry on.

In many of my posts, I will talk about the issues that bother me in my writing, things that hold me back or make me pause for thought. When I write them, I often ask myself, am I going to look foolish writing this. Does this statement make me look like some clueless amateur who seems unable to grasp even the most basic of concepts.

Yet, once it is posted and I start talking to people, I quickly see that it isn’t just me, that other writers have the same struggles to face as me.

It is all too easy to lose ourselves in a self obsessed neurotic funk. To find ourselves slipping down the slope that leads to writers block and all other less than positive feelings and circumstances. When in reality, we are all the same boat, we struggle, on the whole with the same points. Almost all writers would rather write than edit, most would rather write than plan marketing strategies. We are creative people; artists of the written word. We may be unique in our stories, our styles of writing and the way we express ourselves upon the world, but it is in our troubles that we are united. A common goal and a common enemy in the war on self-doubt.

So here we are, together, in it for the long haul, so I urge you all to just speak up,

“If you don’t understand anything, just ask. The chances are that others are just as confused as you are.”

Reblog: But I Want Success Now! by Boyd Morrison

When I was a writer aspiring to be published, I went to a book signing here in Seattle where number one bestselling author Lee Child was making an appearance. As I stepped up to get his autograph, I mentioned that I had finished three books and was struggling to find a publisher. He told me,“Remember, it only takes ten years to become an overnight success.”

At the time I thought he was just being kind to a newbie, giving me encouragement that I would someday reach my goal. It wasn’t until a few years later when I was a published author and knew Lee a little better that I ran into him at Bouchercon and reminded him of what he’d said. I told him that I understood he hadn’t been pandering to me, and Lee nodded in agreement. Although he won awards early in his career, it took him eight books before he made an appearance on the NY Times list, and several more years before he became LEE CHILD, brand name author.

Read the rest of the post here at The Kill Zone