Trista Herring Baughman's Blog, page 9

The Forgotten

Well, y’all, I found this post that I forgot to publish back in February! Thought I’d go ahead and share it anyway. :D

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. –John Lennon

Despite my best intentions, there just isn’t enough time in a day! I haven’t had as much time for blogging, but I’ve had so many wonderful, fun experiences to enrich and inspire my writing and I suppose that makes up for it.  I hope you all have had a great start to the new year. As you may already know, the publication process has begun for The Magic Telescope. I’m expecting the edits from my publisher soon and I’ll have one week to get any desired changes back to them, before we begin work on the layout and illustrations. I’m very happy that Tate Publishing allows their authors to have a say in what the illustrations look like. I once read most publishers don’t allow the author to have a say in the illustrations or the cover. I don’t know if that is true, but I was so relieved that it was not the case with Tate. I’m looking forward to see what my editor has to say. I will keep you updated. Almost too good to be true that I’m finally getting one of my books published! It couldn’t have happened without my wonderful family and friends that love and support me. I realize that getting published is just the beginning. I have to grow an audience and hope the book sells, but I’ll think about that part when I come to it. Can’t wait to see it on bookshelves :D

I still want to self-publish a book, too some day. I recently met a local self-published  author who has published two of her books so far (I’ve read them both) and is doing quite well. She is working on a third book.  I’m waiting to hear back from her on whether or not she’d like to do an interview and give us the 411 on how to self-publish successfully. If you’re a zombie fan, you will love her books. Her name is Laura A. Hansen. Here’s her website: http://www.cruiseoftheundead.com/ Y’all should check it out.

Getting Out There

It’s been a while. I haven’t  stopped writing, I’ve just had set backs. And in the meantime I’ve been reading lots. My most recent read, Writing Children’s Books for Dummies, is a treasure trove of useful information. What I love about it is that you don’t have to start at the beginning. You can pick whichever topic appeals to you and dive right in, which is what I did. I skipped on over to the section about creating your social media presence.  They recommended having a blog (check), Facebook account (check), a Twitter account, a YouTube account, a Pinterest account, and a JacketFlap account. I’ve been working on acquiring each of these that I didn’t already have. Besides these accounts, I personally recommend having a Good Reads account, an Authonomy account, and (if you’re an indy author) a Smashwords account. It takes work to keep all of these accounts up, but it’s necessary in order to let the public know about you and your books. If you google children’s book blogs (or other social media account that you will be making) you will get lots of good ideas for your own. Pay attention to the ones that are listed first or that have the most visitors.

I’ve realized I have way too many obligations and in order to be the best I can be at all I do, I have to start cutting back. I’m a wife, mother of two, writer, and I have a small business from my home. These are the things that I have to focus on and I have to let go of the rest.

 

So my advice to you is prioritize, keep writing, and get out there! :D

Are you ready?

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”― Hugh Laurie

An indubitably true quote. Whatever you dream of doing, do it now. Give it your best shot to make it happen this year. If you want to write a novel, do it! If you want to climb a mountain–go for it! “…with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26.

I’ve decided to write a novel this year. Or at least to begin writing one. It’s a daunting task, but I’ll give it my best shot. I’ve been writing more lately. I have a couple Children’s books finished and ready to go, one nearly finished, and two chapter books in the works.  I think my biggest obstacle is staying on task. I have so many ideas in my head that just can’t wait to get out and so I may start a story and then start another one and before I’ve finished that one I have an idea for yet another one.  The variety helps me, though. If I tire of wracking my brain for one story, I can pick up where I left off on a different one.

I’ve also made more time for reading and I find reading a book on a similar topic to what I’m writing sort of puts me in the right frame of mind and motivates me to write more.  Also, if I haven’t mentioned it before, I highly recommend getting a thesaurus. The Bookshelf Muse has been a great help to me, also.  There is a collection of thesauruses on this site for just about any topic.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress of my novel. I think first I’m going to purchase a copy of Ready, Set, Novel!: A Workbook. I think that will be just the tool I need to help keep me on track.

Let’s make this year one for getting things done and making our dreams come true. Are you with me?

World Book Night US 2014

So, just found out about this awesome night where (if you sign up to do it) you can give away FREE books! It’s called World Book Night.  You should check it out. It’s meant to inspire people who read little or not at all to pick up a good book and read. You get to choose from a list which book you will be giving out (you actually have three top choices and they try to give you one of those) and there are some really good choices to pick from. I think it’s a wonderful idea. I think reading, whether for knowledge or pleasure, helps to keep your mind young.  I also came across something else I look forward to participating in, All Hallows Read, every Halloween, give a friend a scary book. Author Neil Gaiman established the tradition in 2010. I’ve given myself a scary book every Halloween mostly, so why not give a favorite to a friend? This Halloween I’m reading R.L. Stine’s Superstitious. I’ve been doing a little writing here and there, more on that soon. Until then, happy scary reading! 

Fall is here :)

The crispy crunch of Autumn leaves is underfoot, there’s a smell of bonfires and pumpkin flavored everything in the air, and there’s so much to do.  There’s fall festivals, craft shows, pumpkin patches… You get to watch all your favorite Halloween movies and t.v. episodes, fall decorations pop up on all the houses, it’s cooler outside, prime snuggling weather–I love this time of year!  I started a writing group a little while back and our project this month is to start a spooky story and take turns adding to it until it’s finished. We haven’t started yet, but I know it’s going to be awesome.  Maybe I’ll share it here if everyone’s OK with it.  If you’re interested in starting your own writing group, here are some tips.  One of my favorite fall pass-times is snuggling down and reading a good scary story or telling one.   A couple years ago, my sister and I contributed to the book 416. Each story is exactly 416 words and written by a member of Authonomy.com.  You should check it out if you’re looking for some good creepy reads.   I’m super sad I forgot about that contest I was going to enter, back in June. I guess there’s always next year I reckon I’m rambling on.  It’s getting late and there’s so much to do, but I don’t want to do anything.  So, I’m going to head off to sleep and hope I have a super awesome dream that inspires my next story.

 

 

 

The Magic Telescope!

Exciting news After turning down the offer to have The Magic Telescope published, Tate Publishing did work out a deal for me.  I did some more research, talked it over with my hubby, read every bit of the contract, and checked them out on the better business bureau’s website (they have an a+ rating) and I decided to take the risk. I REALLY want to see my book in print! So far everyone that I’ve spoken with has been very professional and friendly.  I’m working on reformatting my manuscript right now.  I just want to thank my hubby and all my family and friends who have been so supportive and encouraging to me. Love y’all! I’ve removed The Magic Telescope from smashwords.com.  I’m still working on a few different projects, too. I really want my next one to be accepted by Harper Collins

Good news or bad news first?

I’ll start with the good news, since the bad news overrides it. Tate Publishing accepted The Magic Telescope for publishing! Yay

Bad news: I have to turn them down.  For one thing, I don’t have $3990 for a publicist.  They did say the would work with me somehow on that, but an author friend brought these websites to my attention:  

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2007/02/happy-valentines-day-from-writer-beware.html

http://www.thelostogle.com/2012/06/05/10-things-ive-learned-about-tate-publishing-ceo-ryan-tate/

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/forum/1000026/what-do-we-know-about-tate-publishing

http://www.writers.net/forum/showthread.php?111452-Recent-experience-with-Tate-Publishing-company-out-of-Oklahoma

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/misc/tate_publishing.html

So now I have mixed feelings. I mean on the one hand, I know an author who was published by them and loves the company. I’ve seen her book and heard her positive experiences so far.  But she hasn’t sold enough books to get the refundable retainer for their publisher back yet.  I hadn’t really expected them to accept my story, since it’s the first publisher I’d sent it to, so I hadn’t delved too deep and researched them yet.  I was looking forward to what they had to say. I guess I was expecting something a little more detailed about what they liked and if they felt anything needed work, etc., but all I got was a generic letter of acceptance.  But hey, I’m new to this, so I really don’t know what to expect.  Maybe if I accepted, that letter would come later. Nearly $4000 is a lot of money to just hand over to someone, especially when you have a family and other responsibilities to consider.  I’d definitely need to do some more research and quiz them on some things.  But since I don’t feel comfortable even working on some kind of plan for the retainer, I’m just gonna pass for now. So I’m happy/sad about the whole thing.  As much as I don’t want to, I think I’ll end up getting a literary agent, if I can find one who is willing to represent me. Back to the beginning. Sigh…  

Fingers Crossed!

Ok, so I met a super nice lady at Chick-Fil-A, I think I mentioned her in my last post, Ms. April Dobson.  She is the newly published author of Adventures of Tally the Turtle: Tally Moves Away  , former military, and a fellow Mississippian. Y’all should check out her book, my son loves it. I have to read it three times every time we read it . I had already checked into her publishers and she was nice enough to take the time to talk with me about them.  I’ve been corresponding with one of their acquisitions editors and submitted one of my stories to them yesterday. Wish me luck!!! I’m a little nervous about it.  Even if they aren’t interested in my work, I look forward to hearing any comments/criticism they may have. I will keep you posted on that.

Another thing I want to share with you this morning is a new, brilliant, super awesome e-magazine, The Paperbook Collective.  It’s a “creative collaboration of work from around the world” and available in pdf or online through ISSUU. You can read it online or print it to read later.  I admit I skipped around some and haven’t read it in its entirety, but what I did read was just, well, awesome and put together very well.  I especially liked:

When Reading Turns Deadly by Hadas Nahshon, pg. 8

The World Darkly by John W. Howell, pg. 15

A Stair Case by John Arthur Robinson, pg. 26

Elephant by Jade Ashe, pg 45

The magazine includes author biographies and a submissions form on pg. 48 if you’d like to submit your own work.  I plan to do that soon.  You can find out more about it at The Paperbook Blog, which I also am fond of reading.

I’ve been making a special effort to make time for writing everyday.  Not so easy with gorgeous weather that beckons you to drop all responsibilities and soak in the sunshine and scents of summer before winter reaches out with it’s frozen, spindly fingers and withers it all away. Fall is almost nonexistent here :/ Maybe this year will be different. Anyways, it can be done and so I’ll do it! And I want to encourage you to keep writing, too. Y’all have a great day!

Yay!

I’m super excited! In a few days I’ll get to meet a published Children’s book author from my home state Maybe she’ll agree to an interview.  I’m even more excited that I looked into her publishing company and I will soon be submitting one of my manuscripts (fingers crossed!). I’m not getting my hopes up too high, but just doing something, working towards one of my ultimate goals, makes me really happy. I got some positive feed back from a self publishing company that I admire, so that lifted my spirits a little, too.  I will go into more detail in a future blog.

book vs. movie

I have a rule about books that are turned into to movies. When at all possible, I like to read the book first. I then savagely nit pick the movie.  It bugs me when the movie strays too far from the book and I wonder why the screen writer didn’t just write his own movie, instead of butchering some poor defenseless (yet probably very rich) author’s work. Take for instance Nicholas Spark’s novel, The Lucky One.  The movie isn’t really that much like the book. My husband probably wishes I didn’t read the book first because I point out every little change that’s in the movie.

I can honestly say that I haven’t found a book yet that I didn’t enjoy more than the movie, but some movies do live up to the awesomeness of the book.  I didn’t really know what The Hunger Games was about and didn’t think I cared, so I watched the movie thinking I’d never read the book anyway, but it really made me want to read the book and now I’ve read all three. Of course I then had to re-watch the movie. Can’t wait until the next movie comes out this November The only thing I wish they would have done differently in the first movie is make Pita as charming as he is in the book.

I did the same thing with Beautiful Creatures. I watched the movie, but I didn’t know that there was a book.  I’m thinking about reading that series next, but haven’t started yet.  Have any suggestions on books turned into movies that are worth reading? Do you like to read the book or watch the movie first?