S.M. Johnson's Blog, page 33

Brainstorming

I will be very brief this morning, darlings, because my back is going "snap,crackle,pop."

I am having a blog dilemma.

It occurs to me that this blog has somehow aimed itself at Writers, even though my goal was to offer a Thursday Morning Coffee break to Readers (actually, to be completely truthful, I read a blog post that said writers often direct their blog posts to other writers - and I recognized myself).

Writers who follow me, don't go away! On Thursdays, I will post one of the following: A short-short, a short story, a poem, or a snippet of what I'm working on now.

I would also love to showcase the work of other writers, traditional or indie published, so long as I deem the work ready for public consumption.

On Sundays I will be posting installments of a "clean" novel that I've been working on called A Year of Sundays. I'm actually going to put the synopsis and Chapter 1 Part 1 up today, backdated to yesterday. Because I can be sneaky like that.

I will randomly celebrate the success of others, and share personal, book-related news when there is personal, book-related news. After this post, however, I will reserve Sunday and Thursday for fiction.

This morning I want to shout out a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to Peter Dube, whom I've met a couple of times at Saints and Sinners. Check out this awesome review at Out in Print.

Finally, Out of the Dungeon is on schedule for release October 30, 2011. Heck, I might even manage an earlier release. Yay!

That's all I have today, darlings. Have a great Thursday!

How to get ready to release a book…

Hello and Happy Thursday!



Typically, my October is all about getting ready for NaNoWriMo – the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in just one month – that begins on November 1st.

Autumn makes me desperately sad, but Nano saves me every year, because by the time I look up to see the world again, the furnace has kicked on and there might even be snow on the ground, and I have survived another transition from summer to winter.

November is the one month of the year that I get to concentrate on new materiel. Raw words, no editing, and characters who do crazy and unexpected things at will.



It's so different from the novel polishing I'm doing today.

Part of my preparation is polishing up Out of the Dungeon, the sequel to Above the Dungeon.  I'm going out on my own. It might be a terrible idea, but then again, the book might be too edgy even for a traditional e-publisher. I've said that I like to push limits.



I'm planning the release for October 30th, 2011. Which is kind of fitting, because Out of the Dungeon is last year's NaNo novel.

I would tell you, my readers, that polishing a novel is fun, but it would be a lie. It is tedious, but oddly satisfying.

Polishing is making sure the chapter numbers are in sequential order. It's making sure that my characters don't cuss needlessly, or at the very least, that their cussing is in character. It's using the "find" feature of MS Word to search for every –ly ending, with a personal goal of eliminating 2/3 of them. Because really, how many reallys do you need, really?

I had a little cover photo shoot, and I'm hoping  the cover will look something like this (with the title and my name added, of course):



Polishing is verifying that all storylines have satisfying endings. If they don't, I have a little less than a month to tie their loose ends into neat little bows. Sounds gratifying, doesn't it, a bit like writing new materiel? But it's not, not really. The characters have done what I asked them to do, but sometimes resolution occurs in my head and never quite makes it to the keyboard. It's my job to notice that and get it done.

That being said, I'm going to get back to it.

Happy Thursday, darlings!

PS. still smoke free, if anyone is interested. And still totally hate it. But if I give up now, I'll just have to start the suffering over again later, and who needs that?

I've been tagged!

I got tagged by Coral Russell. I'm supposed to share seven things about myself and tag a couple of other bloggers. So here goes -

#1 - I can't watch violent movies or television (even though my vampires drink human blood, kill people, and aren't very nice).


#2 - I hate Christmas. There, I said it. From the decorating to the music.


#3 - It only looks from the outside like I'm functioning on all cylinders. 


#4 - (Seven things? Sigh). Okay. I can barely move or think without my morning coffee. 


#5 - I tell my family that I'm staying up late writing, but I actually write most prolifically if I get up at about 4 in the morning (and make coffee, of course).


#6 - I am a cut and paste scrap-booker. It's an awesome contrast to all the time I spend staring at a glowing screen.

#7 - I love love love love being at home all by myself. Love it.

Hmm... now I have to tag some other bloggers.
The Secret Life of an Erotica Writer
 Urban Silver
Unapologetic Fiction
 

Blogging Me Softly

September 29 is day 7 without nicotine. I am taking a  generic Zyban product, which is incredibly helpful, but still I am restless and out of sorts.

I am actually trying not to talk or complain about it too much, however,  because that might generate obsessive thinking, which is where my quit efforts have always failed.

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I'll be honest here: I love smoking. I have always loved smoking.

I once quit for 4 years, and found it a total relief to start smoking again, even though I had hardly missed it. I like smokers. Seriously. In today's world of smoking-is-allowed-absolutely-nowhere, smokers are stubborn rebels. I tend to like that in people. I don't know why, I just do. Like folks with tattoos – there's a basic toughness in people who walk 2 blocks on their 15 minute break.

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So here we are, me and all the characters in my brain who talk to me (even though I try to play it off as talking to myself), going on day 7.

This is what I am telling myself: The first seven days must be the toughest.

Yesterday I told myself: The first six days must be the hardest.

Do you see the pattern here?

Honestly – I would just smoke, except that seven days seems like an accomplishment, and I'd have to start over counting the hours.

One way or another, I have to quit.

I have an obstructive pulmonary condition that will turn into COPD if I keep smoking. That turns into emphysema.

Ugh.

On the upside, I no longer wake up feeling like I am drowning.

I can laugh out loud without the laugh turning into a hacking cough. (Although I still have a cough).

I can inhale and exhale deeply without choking.

I ran two blocks with the dog today, and it felt GREAT. I haven't run on purpose for years. (Poor old dog, had to give her an aspirin for her sore knee afterward).

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I jogged up four flights of stairs yesterday. Okay, that didn't feel so great. Although it did make me feel as if I'd just smoked a cigarette, which pretty much was my intention.

Jogging the stairs is my plan for not going crazy at work. If I can't smoke, I tend to skip my breaks, but then I get totally stressed out. So never mind the stair-master, I'll be using the real deal.

Anyway. Enough of my whining. We all have our trials.  I still have 9 cigarettes and a lighter inside a cigarette pack. It's my emergency stash. It's wrapped in duct tape, mostly to give me time to reconsider. Because I know myself: smoking just one cigarette is all it takes for me to quit quitting.

I am not worried about writing. Stephen King assured me in his book, On Writing, that even without nicotine, my brain will spin stories and all I have learned about my craft will not suddenly disappear.
Whew. That is good news. I'm even turning it around on myself – I used to measure time with cigarettes, and I used to smoke as a transition between activities. So my strategy this week has been to use that time writing a few hundred words. Very productive.

I learned something else about my productivity, and that would be that I have a very hard time keeping my ass in my chair. No wonder I don't write more than a few pages a day. Good God, I'm getting up and heading to the back door a few hundred times a day. Well, that's what it feels like now, when I get up from my desk, and then try to figure out what I got up for, since I'm not going outside to burn one.
Anyway. Despite feeling a vague sense of boredom, and despite having to constantly remind myself that I am no longer a smoker, you know what? It's day SEVEN, and I'm actually doing all right (smile).
Have a great Thursday. (If you happen to be a smoker, smoke one for me, k? Thx!)

Marketing is not for dummies…

…and other Thursday thoughts.



People fascinate me. The stuff they do, the stuff they say, the stories they tell, the images and videos they capture. From a human perspective, I could browse websites, blogs, and Twitter links all day. From the perspective of a writer with a day job, I have to be a little more disciplined, because quiet hours around here are precious.

I can lose hours of what-could- have-been-writing-time to social networking.


And book reviews! I love reading simple, well-written reviews, like the ones at Dark Divas Reviews.

My to-read list is growing. I get happy little links on Twitter that take me directly to Dark Divas – it's so easy, and so fun!

Some social networking I do to keep in contact with real life friends, and some of it I do for marketing. I'm all for discovering the gimmick that goes viral and earns me followers who will buy my books.



But alas, I'm not as funny as I would like to be. I never know what to post on Twitter. I mean, I look at my history of tweets and think, "Man, I am sooo B-O-R-I-N-G."

I try to think of witty, clever little things that will be less boring. But 140 characters is… well, 140 characters. There's only so much you can say. 

Some people have a gift for Twitter, but I do not.  (check out the hysterical Twitter stream found at #bookswithalettermissing).

And yet, an idea came to me while pondering life-skills that I do not possess.
I thought, "A-ha! New tweets! Yay!"

Actually, I think I was home alone and might have said a-ha and yay right out loud.

   (Me saying A-ha!)

Things I have Never Done, an attempt to be witty and clever via what I wasn't saying.

#1 waitressing

#2 housekeeping

#3 cocaine

I thought there would be a subtle sort of humor inherent  in what is absent from the list.

But I don't know. Perhaps it's too subtle for 140 words. Perhaps a more comprehensive list would be funnier than individual tweets. Most likely?  Writing humor is tricky.

I do not believe that Things I have Never Done is going viral any time soon. Damn.

Marketing baffles me, and this baffled part of me longs for a six figure advance and a team of publicists. (And health insurance. Health insurance would be really nice).

When push comes to shove, I don't want to spend my time peddling my wares. Forget the marketing hullaballoo, forget promoting myself. I am tired of searching out new networking opportunities to manipulate into sales figures.

That's not me.

I'm the story spinner with so much going on in my brain that you don't even know --  the dreamer with her head in the clouds.



And I just want to write.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday, darlings!