Stacy Verdick Case's Blog, page 4

The Real About Me

So I was told (rather rudely I might add – there’s no cause for that) that my About Me Page “needs work.” I used to have a really fun about me page that was written by a friend of mine (Hi Joanna!) in which I made comments about her perception of me.  That one I was told (again rudely – not necessary) that that page was “unprofessional.” Maybe it was but it was fun.

Here’s the deal.  All “about me” pages are crap. You know that right? Every author or aspiring author edits out the bad and embellishes the good in a desperate attempt to make readers like them. They should all read like this, “Like me, please like me – see I’m legit! Look at all I’ve done.”  Then you find out years later that they participated in a horrific murder as a teen (looking at you Anne Perry), but that’s not in the bio is it! NOOOOO!

So here’s what I’m going to do dear reader.  I’m going to run a series called The Real About Me. In these posts I will tell you who I really am.  Will it make you want to read my books more? I dunno. Will it make you not like me? Maybe. Will it make you loooove me? Again dunno. Either way it’s me and it ain’t pretty y’all.

Ground breaking right?

Here’s your first installment:

The Real About Me – Part 1

I am afraid of spiders.  I’m not the kind of afraid of spiders where I will run the other direction and scream, though I will do that.  I’m the kind of afraid where I will leave my child in the clutches of a man eating spider and sacrifice my husband to whatever god the spider overlord wants me to worship kind of afraid. I would rather burn my house down then go back in if a spider escapes the slayer (aka – the husband).

I’m not proud of this fact.  I will try to pretend that I’m not afraid if I’m in public and a spider drops down from a restaurant ceiling.  Actually, no I won’t – forgot I was trying to be real. This happened to me.  One dropped down between my husband and I during dinner at restaurant. Not only can we NEVER go back to that restaurant, I’m pretty sure the owner is still in therapy from my reaction.

I think I screamed something to the effect of that restaurant being a filthy hovel that I would never eat at again and I threatened to send a city inspector to shut them down.  No, I did not call the inspector. That was the fear talking. It’s not a filthy hovel and when I calmed down a few days later I came to my senses.  I have never eaten there again though. That’s my spider PTSD and fear that they have a photo of me posted that prevents me from going there again.

I have also been known to throw things at spiders on TV. Nope not kidding. Again, it’s the fear.

We have wolf spiders here in Minnesota (google it yourself so you can see these beasts) and they like to turn up in the darnedest places. One sunny afternoon my husband and I were going out fishing. The boat we were to fish from was beached.  My job was to push the boat out into the water while my husband retrieved the life jackets from the hold. I can still see it. Hang on I have to shudder.  As I pushed the boat away from the shore a giant wolf spider sat right next to my bright white Ked (that’s the singular of Keds) on my right foot.

People I didn’t even know I could vault my husband, but I did!  As he describes it, “She was in front of me and the next thing I knew she was behind me.”  I scramble to the back of the boat and then realizing that I can’t walk on water but spiders can, I stopped and pointed. I couldn’t do anything else because the breath had be scared out of my body. Like when you fall and get the wind knocked out of you. When I finally realized I needed to breath out and not in all that came out was a loud scream.

My husband and brother-in-law rolled their eyes and went to see the offending spider.  Both of them stopped in their tracks.  This thing was probably 2 inches in body and another 7 inches of legs. HORRIFYING! Neither of them were brave enough to step on that thing and eventually when it picked up on it’s legs (I swear it was the size of a small child but my husband says it wasn’t – agree to disagree) and ran up the hill toward my brother-in-law he ran too.  Finally, a cinder-block was dropped on the unearthly creature.  I did not sleep that night.  I had spider riddled dreams.  I screamed,and kicked all night. Eventually I kicked the wall in our room so hard my brother-in-law sleeping on the other side of the wall fell out of bed.

I told you it wasn’t pretty, but there you have it.  Now you know something about me that is real and not on my about me page.  Just wait for the next installment!

~S

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Never Fear Change

Just a thought for the day. ~S

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Love When Fortune Cookies Commit!

Heck yah! Finally a fortune cookie with specifics!  Mark this date 4-4-2016 because one year from that day I will be sitting at home writing full time.  You read it hear first folks! It’s time to turn in my resignation for 1-year from now!

God help the cookie that lies to me people!  I will put it in a book and make that cookie die a horrible death. I’ll do it! So make the cookie crumbs fall where they may!

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When Friends Don’t Like Your Favorite Books | ShelfTalker

If you love books you’ve totally been here! I wanted to share this quick piece from ShelfTalker on PW:

Can you be friends with someone who doesn’t like a book you love?

Source: When Friends Don’t Like Your Favorite Books | ShelfTalker

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What Do You Do When You Lose?

So I lost one of my notebooks. Unfortunately it was the one that contained the second half of book 4 in my series.  I’ve torn my house apart twice and it’s not here. 

So what do you do when you lose half your latest book?

Edited with BlogPad Pro

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Wearing My “Writer” Hat

So, I literally put on my writers hat to write and when I wear it out of the house other aspiring writers, or parents of aspiring writers want to know where I got the hat.  Here it is y’all! It’s $10 from the writer’s store.  No this is not an affiliate link it’s just a public service for free so you can all score your own writer hat.

~S

Source: Classic “Writer” Hat

Wear your passion! Show the world you’ve made the ultimate commitment with this fun cap. You can also sport it to signal your housemates that you’re hard at work on your latest project. This 100% adjustable cap with embroidered eyelets and unstructured low crown sports our famous “Writer” logo on front and fits most creative heads. The black cap is constructed from earth-friendly RPET (cotton & recycled plastic made from roughly two 20-ounce bottles) while the natural is constructed from organic cotton. Makes a great gift for the writers in your life!

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How-To Batch Task | Vicki Hinze

I’m always looking for ways to maximize my time and I know a lot of authors (oh heck just anyone with kids or a job or a life) are too.  Vicki Hinze is uber productive and she shared how she does it on her blog. I found this very helpful so I wanted to share it here with you! Click the link to read this awesome article.

Source: How-To Batch Task | Vicki Hinze

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Our Biggest Writing Enemy – Prepare for Battle

So I’ve been writing for a very looonnnnggg time (don’t even try to count or I will add you to my next book and not in a nice way) and I think I’ve discovered what is the biggest enemy to writing.

I can hear a bunch of sleep deprived writers screaming “Sleep!” and a bunch of time crunched full-time worker/writers yelling, “Time!” and both of those are valid answers to the question but they are not the one.  The one with a capital O will make you go OOOOOOO!

Wait for it!

The biggest enemy to a writer is their own brain.

 

Go ahead and sit with that for a second.  I’ll wait.

 

Okay, now that your offending enemy has stopped going, “I am not!” Let me explain.

 

Our brains are mystical little creatures.  They do weird things like convince us of things that are not true and fill in blank spaces. Don’t belive me you can read about it in Scientific American here, or GoodTherapy.org here, or Phys.org here.

 

 

Our brain trick us all the time.  One of the most devastating ways our brains trick us to make up stories to justify why we do or don’t do something.  I wont’ go into a lot of detail because that’s not what this post is about but you can read Dr. Brene Brown’s take on this in her post The Most Dangerous Stories We Make Up.

 

Dr Brown’s Book Rising Strong is what first started me thinking about the stories I’ve told myself about being a writer.  If you’re a writer or any kind of artist you should read both Daring Greatly and Rising Strong by Dr. Brown.  They are fantastic books for everyone but I think if you want to be an artist in a world or internet trolls and shamers you need to read this books to help steel yourself.

Anyway I digress from my endorsement of Dr. Brown!

As I said I’m think about all the stories I’ve told myself over the years and I started to laugh at the ridiculousness of what my brain has told me through the years.  Please allow me to share some with you in no particular order:

 

I will never be a writer because I don’t have a great signature for signing books. – I shit you not that was a thought I actually had! What the hell does my signature have to do with writing?  I even practiced trying to change my signature – that’s how crazy that thought made me!
I will never be a writer because I can’t spell very well. – In school I failed A LOT of spelling tests.  A LOT.  I am a terrible speller. Well I say BID SPILLERS UNTIE!  Only a handful of people will not understand that previous statement and you are not my demographic – I’m just saying. Spelling has nothing to do with telling a story. Obviously, if the wrong words are used you want to correct that in the polishing phase but spelling should never be the reason a writer doesn’t write and it’s my brain’s fault I can’t spell so it’s negative self talk on this matter can just suck it!
I will never be a writer because I’m not pretty enough. – Oh hello deep seeded insecurity! It’s been like a whole 10 minutes since you interfered will me last.  Well sorry brain I AM HOT!  Well okay so sometimes I’m a hot mess but hot is still hot and it has nothing to do with being able to tell a story. Nope, not one bit. Never has and never will.

 

There are more but you get the point of the ridiculousness of what the brain can manufacture.

 

Then there’s writers “block”.  For 99% of my adult life I’ve been able to sit down at will and write stories.  Then one day my brain went, “Sorry there’s nothing here to see anymore.” Um, why?  I don’t know.  No one knows! Go ahead and Google it. No one knows what causes writers block and there’s no real solution to getting rid of it.  There should be federal dollars going to research that one because it is an epidemic!

 

For me it pretty much boiled down to I think I can’t so I can’t. Too much pressure after my last book left me feeling like I can’t top that.  Guess what? That’s my brain’s fault again.  It was me saying to myself, “If you think you can’t then don’t bother trying.”

 

How did I get over it.  Sounded something like this in my head.  “That was crap.”  “I don’t care I’m putting it on the page.” “That was really stupid.” “I can fix it later.”  “Why are you doing this? You’re obviously done as a writer.” “Shut up, I’m writing.” “Are you hearing me you suck.” “No, not listening to you.” “I’m not going away.” “I can’t here you. La, la, la, la, la!”

 

That isn’t even a joke.  It’s really what was happening. Negative talk was so loud in the beginning and then there was the fighter in me head down an plowing through.  It was painful.  It was ugly.  It was not a fair fight. And I’m still fighting.  I think I always will be, but deep down, to me, it’s worth it.

 

What lie did your brain tell you today?

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I Lied – Sorry but I was Hiding

My last blog post was a lie … kinda. My last post about I’m not dead I’m Just Busy was only half-true. I am very busy and I’m not dead, but I was not hard at work on book 4. The truth is (and I feel like I can trust you all), I was suffering from writers block for the better part of 2015 and if I remember correctly part of 2014.

There! I said it and I feel better now.

I feel like I can tell people that now because it’s in the past and I am writing again. When I was in the thick of writers block I didn’t want to talk about it AT ALL! I felt like giving voice to it would only make it worse. That and I didn’t want to go around whining to whoever would listen because what has that ever gotten anyone?

So I hid.

Whenever someone asked me about book 4 I would tell them I was working on it. I think I worked in that I was struggling on parts. That was a lie.

The more people asked the more anxious I got and the more I wanted to hide. No one was overtly putting pressure on me but well-meaning, “I can’t wait for book 4!” made me physically ill.

None of my tricks for getting past writers block were working. I took time to refill my well. I did other artistic projects. I sat with my thoughts in quiet. I prayed. I cried. Nothing worked.

So I thought, I guess that’s it. I’m done as a writer. I’ve been writing for a very long time (since I was 7 or 8 to be honest) and I thought maybe I’d just used it up. Maybe each of us is only given a finite number of stories and mine had all been written.

The worst part was, I had been so close to the end of book 4 and that really pissed me off. Sorry for anyone offended by that phrase but it’s the only one that suits how I felt. I was pissed because I would never know what happened to Catherine on her last half-finished adventure. And I was going to miss her terribly if I couldn’t have my moments with her anymore.

Then one afternoon on a weekend when my mother-in-law had happened to have my daughter and I was all alone to my own devices, I decided to clean my office. If you saw if right now you’d call me a liar again but I swear I did clean it that day. There were the hand written pages of the manuscript that would be book 4 of the Catherine O’Brien series. I felt ill and sad at the same time.

I flicked through the pages until one passage caught my attention. I started to read and burst out laughing. I hadn’t remember writing what I was reading. It had after all been almost a year since I’d written it. I kept reading until I reached where I had left off. No I didn’t immediately reach for a pen and start writing. Wouldn’t that have been a great end to this blog post! Dang. I should have lied again, but this post is about the truth.

The truth is that read through refreshed my memory of the story and started me thinking of it again and how would I have like it to end. It took about a week after that read through and it happened in the shower. I’m letting water run down my back when suddenly the voices in my head went, “You know what would have been a great way to end that one?”

Naked, wet, and cold. That’s how I wrote the ending of book 4. Well at least the finial scene, which helped me fill in the gaps between where I left off and where it would go. Yes, this time book 4 really is completely written. I’m working on typing it into the computer (because you all know I hand write my first drafts), and it needs A LOT of polishing but it’s all there to be scrubbed up.

Thanks for listening and I’m sorry I lied for so long.

~S

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No, I’m Not Dead – Just Busy

Hi All –

I know I’ve been gone from the blog sphere since January. I’ve been busy working on book 4, living life, dealing with struggles, and embarking on new frontiers. Even I chuckle at how overly dramatic I am.

Book 4 in the Catherine O’Brien series is coming along. I was blocked and now I’m not. That’s all I have to say on the frontier.  The really great news is An Intimate Murder is now available on audiobook!  If you’re an audiobook fan and you’ve been waiting for this one click the image below and get your copy today!

Click for Your Audiobook Copy!

As for the new frontiers, I’ve been asked to do a show for Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, LLC. and I accepted the challenge with much fear and trembling! You know, the usual. But I did it anyway.  Last month was the first episode of It’s A Mystery to Me with Stacy Verdick Case. I spoke with a fantastic author Shannon Baker. You can download the podcast or listen online by clicking here.

The show is going to be great.  I have so many great authors lined up I am thrilled to get to speak with them.  I promise not to be too much of a fan girl and geek out too on writing stuff for all you mystery readers who don’t want to have to learn how an engine runs just to drive a car (it’s a metaphor-too writerly? I’ll stop.). Like the It’s a Mystery to Me Facebook page to keep up to date on the latest and greatest.

So there you are! The rest of the challenges and living life, that’s just the usual stuff that everyone goes through, but onward and upward. As long as I woke up breathing this morning, it’s going to be alright.

Many Blessing to You All!

~S

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