Dawn Reno Langley's Blog, page 4
March 1, 2017
FREE for limited time! ALL THAT GLITTERS
Okay, folks, I promised Giveaways and Freebies if you follow my blog, and here's one for a Kindle version of my novel, ALL THAT GLITTERS. Just follow this link: https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/0dbe616...
Feel free to SHARE with your friends!
Feel free to SHARE with your friends!
February 27, 2017
Reading this? Get my book FREE
I've been encouraging people to follow my blog, because I'll occasionally have a giveaway to post or a gift for my readers. Here you go! A free copy of ALL THAT GLITTERS for you Kindle folks!
https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/0dbe616...
Enjoy!!!
https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/0dbe616...
Enjoy!!!
February 7, 2017
Do you ever stare out the window and think of nothing?
My mother always got on my case about 'daydreaming' when I was younger. She'd catch me looking out the window when I should be doing homework or staring into space when she was telling me something important. The teachers noticed it in school, too. They'd send home notes on my report card saying that I daydreamed too much.
Yup, I was daydreaming all right. But I wasn't thinking of nothing.
Normally, when I stare out the window now, people don't bug me about it. They know I'm a writer. Hell, most of my friends are writers themselves, so they all know that when I look off into space, I'm working. That's what I call it. Working.
But I'm really daydreaming.
I'm thinking about what kind of tree I'm staring at or about a boy I knew in high school and where he might be now or about being at the beach or about that fish chowder I can warm up for lunch. And after all those bothersome little thoughts, the kind the Polynesians call fidi-coco, then I come around to thinking about the scene I'm working on or the character who's bugging the crap out of me because they won't make a decision or just don't fit into the story or aren't likable.
I never stare out the window and think about nothing, but is it daydreaming? I kinda like that word. It fits my work.
Yup, daydreaming is my job.
Peace,
Dawn
Yup, I was daydreaming all right. But I wasn't thinking of nothing.
Normally, when I stare out the window now, people don't bug me about it. They know I'm a writer. Hell, most of my friends are writers themselves, so they all know that when I look off into space, I'm working. That's what I call it. Working.
But I'm really daydreaming.
I'm thinking about what kind of tree I'm staring at or about a boy I knew in high school and where he might be now or about being at the beach or about that fish chowder I can warm up for lunch. And after all those bothersome little thoughts, the kind the Polynesians call fidi-coco, then I come around to thinking about the scene I'm working on or the character who's bugging the crap out of me because they won't make a decision or just don't fit into the story or aren't likable.
I never stare out the window and think about nothing, but is it daydreaming? I kinda like that word. It fits my work.
Yup, daydreaming is my job.
Peace,
Dawn
January 31, 2017
What's the best way to win your heart?
Just a little more than a year and a half ago, I left a job, took the leap, and promised myself I'd kickstart my writing career, a career that had been healthy enough to support my family at one point. I did that, and I met my goal of publishing a novel, and now I'm in the midst of the business end of writing.
I'm happy to be here. It's the 24/7-work-until-my-eyes-bleed and love every minute of it type of career that people always want but are usually not brave enough to . . . well, jump off the cliff.
Some days I sit at this laptop and wonder whether I'm sending out these pithy tweets and scheduling giveaways and writing blogs and posting pictures and they all go to some big black writing hole in the sky. When I'm out walking Izzy, I wonder what it is that makes a reader read. What will make that woman (most of my readers are female, I believe) pick my book out of the thousands of others that are available?
I know what makes me want to read a book. Believe it or not, the cover tells me a lot. If it's blurry or not sized properly or simply looks homemade, I will judge that book by the poorly-made cover. On the other hand, I might be drawn to a cover of a book that may not be in my chosen genre. For example, the other day, I saw an absolutely gorgeous cover depicting a woman in a flowing white and diamond sparkled dress. You see her from behind and above and around her are miraculously colored butterflies. The background is a midnight blue, so the offset of the white gown against the midnight blue is stunning. The book is fantasy/sci-fi, a genre I read only occasionally and only when it's a classic, like something by Ursula LeGuin or C.S. Lewis.
I've redone all my covers and, for the most part, I'm happy with them. Now I have someone working on banners, then we'll get some videos done. All of this to reach out to that woman who's looking for a book that might take her away from her own reality for a few hours.
I remember when I began choosing my own books that it was a delicious quandary to be faced with dozens of books with covers that enticed me to read the story within and to have to choose only ten to take home that week. Ten books in one week. I can't read that in a year sometime! I devoured books. Read everything on those shelves that smacked of adventure or was set in another country or featured a wizard. Yes, Merlin and Arthur and Guenevere, in all their iterations. Sherlock Holmes. Biographies about Annie Oakley, all the presidents, Amelia Earheart.
Now, all I want is to put down on the page all the love I feel for the book and impart some of the joy I found when I sat on the stairs outside my house, the pile of library books beside me and began to read.
The question is, what's the best way to share those books now?
Peace.
D
Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
I'm happy to be here. It's the 24/7-work-until-my-eyes-bleed and love every minute of it type of career that people always want but are usually not brave enough to . . . well, jump off the cliff.
Some days I sit at this laptop and wonder whether I'm sending out these pithy tweets and scheduling giveaways and writing blogs and posting pictures and they all go to some big black writing hole in the sky. When I'm out walking Izzy, I wonder what it is that makes a reader read. What will make that woman (most of my readers are female, I believe) pick my book out of the thousands of others that are available?
I know what makes me want to read a book. Believe it or not, the cover tells me a lot. If it's blurry or not sized properly or simply looks homemade, I will judge that book by the poorly-made cover. On the other hand, I might be drawn to a cover of a book that may not be in my chosen genre. For example, the other day, I saw an absolutely gorgeous cover depicting a woman in a flowing white and diamond sparkled dress. You see her from behind and above and around her are miraculously colored butterflies. The background is a midnight blue, so the offset of the white gown against the midnight blue is stunning. The book is fantasy/sci-fi, a genre I read only occasionally and only when it's a classic, like something by Ursula LeGuin or C.S. Lewis.
I've redone all my covers and, for the most part, I'm happy with them. Now I have someone working on banners, then we'll get some videos done. All of this to reach out to that woman who's looking for a book that might take her away from her own reality for a few hours.
I remember when I began choosing my own books that it was a delicious quandary to be faced with dozens of books with covers that enticed me to read the story within and to have to choose only ten to take home that week. Ten books in one week. I can't read that in a year sometime! I devoured books. Read everything on those shelves that smacked of adventure or was set in another country or featured a wizard. Yes, Merlin and Arthur and Guenevere, in all their iterations. Sherlock Holmes. Biographies about Annie Oakley, all the presidents, Amelia Earheart.
Now, all I want is to put down on the page all the love I feel for the book and impart some of the joy I found when I sat on the stairs outside my house, the pile of library books beside me and began to read.
The question is, what's the best way to share those books now?
Peace.
D
Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table
January 28, 2017
Radio Interviews Make Me Nervous
I should know at this stage in my career that getting a book off the ground means going out of my comfort zone and facing people who are expecting an exciting, all-inclusive answer to the hardest question in the world in under 30 seconds or less.
That's freaking hard to do.
Today, I had a radio interview with three other authors who are all members of Rave Reviews Book Club. I joined the club because it seemed to have some heft -- lots of members -- and they were supportive of each other. Today, after being a member for a couple of months, I got a little bit of the spotlight. And I was as about as tongue-tied as you can get!
I was prepared to talk about Loving Marie, but I ended up talking about The Mourning Parade. When they asked me about myself, all I talked about was where I lived, not about who I am, how much I've taught, where I want to be five years from now. Duh.
I felt stupid. And I'm sure the other people who were also interviewed felt like their heads were whirling like the girl from the Exorcist just as I did.
Boy, I'd better get some practice . . .
Shaking my head.
Peace,
Dawn
That's freaking hard to do.
Today, I had a radio interview with three other authors who are all members of Rave Reviews Book Club. I joined the club because it seemed to have some heft -- lots of members -- and they were supportive of each other. Today, after being a member for a couple of months, I got a little bit of the spotlight. And I was as about as tongue-tied as you can get!
I was prepared to talk about Loving Marie, but I ended up talking about The Mourning Parade. When they asked me about myself, all I talked about was where I lived, not about who I am, how much I've taught, where I want to be five years from now. Duh.
I felt stupid. And I'm sure the other people who were also interviewed felt like their heads were whirling like the girl from the Exorcist just as I did.
Boy, I'd better get some practice . . .
Shaking my head.
Peace,
Dawn
January 23, 2017
Sometimes Hard Work Pays Off
Okay, so I haven't been on the New York Times bestseller list YET, but the work I've been putting in on a daily basis for the past year and a half is starting to pay off. Butt in the chair is the only way to add pages to a novel. You don't write while you're running the streets, per se. Your butt needs to be in a chair and fingers on the keyboard (and, yes, I know some people stand at their desks -- take "butt in the chair" as a metaphor). This week that butt in the chair has started paying off.
I'm excited to see my new novel, The Mourning Parade, on the Amazon site https://www.amazon.com/Mourning-Parad... as a pre-sale! Nothing like seeing it become a reality :-)
And I've been invited to take part in a Celebration of Expressive Arts in Montgomery Center, Vermont (my ol' home town!). I'm really looking forward to seeing some old friends and to filling my lungs with Vermont's clean Fall air. Leaf peeping season. September 28.
AND I met with a banker recently, and she invited me to take a table to sell my Writer's Hand Journals to a convention full of Empowered Women in April.
I also have a couple of interviews coming up, and I'll be reading at Two Writers Walk Into a Bar at the West End Wine Bar in Durham on Valentine's Day.
Things are starting to rock!
Peace,
Dawn
I'm excited to see my new novel, The Mourning Parade, on the Amazon site https://www.amazon.com/Mourning-Parad... as a pre-sale! Nothing like seeing it become a reality :-)
And I've been invited to take part in a Celebration of Expressive Arts in Montgomery Center, Vermont (my ol' home town!). I'm really looking forward to seeing some old friends and to filling my lungs with Vermont's clean Fall air. Leaf peeping season. September 28.
AND I met with a banker recently, and she invited me to take a table to sell my Writer's Hand Journals to a convention full of Empowered Women in April.
I also have a couple of interviews coming up, and I'll be reading at Two Writers Walk Into a Bar at the West End Wine Bar in Durham on Valentine's Day.
Things are starting to rock!
Peace,
Dawn
January 12, 2017
The End! Analyzing the Prescotts is done!
I hesitate to say that any piece of fiction is truly ever finished, but (for now, at least) my new novel, Analyzing the Prescotts, is done. I typed 'the end' on it just moments ago.
Now I'm going out to do some errands because I have a play to review tonight (one of my favorites: Orlando -- so appropriate since the subject matter mimics Analyzing's story), and I need to get up from this chair!
One thing no writer ever tells you is how much it physically hurts the body to be on deadline. The long and short of it: I've been working on the edits for this novel since November. Around the middle of December, I finished a major rewrite and sat down at the computer to type it in. I ate the same meal every day for a week (I typically make a soup, a big one, and since I live alone, I need to eat the whole thing), and by the time I was close to finished, my back, shoulders, and neck had become a fiery mess. I finished it, went directly into the holiday season, and asked my friend Lolita for some help (she's a masseuse and worked on loosening my back so I could begin the second half).
I printed the draft and went through the book once again, inserting scenes where there was a need, deleting characters, adjusting the flow of the narrative. I had made as many notes on this second run through as I had previously . . . so it was time to sit down at the computer and plug in more edits.
Don't get me wrong. These are not the first two edits this manuscript has seen. Not by a long shot! This story is about six years old and has changed dramatically through major overhauls (including one at a writer's colony in Vermont, where I had chunks of the manuscript all over the room and hanging on the walls).
Another week of nonstop typing, and I'm done. I have eaten mostly peanut butter and drank a lot of wine. I haven't gone out much and rarely change from an old t-shirt, a pair of sloppy pants, and slippers that have seen better days. If I didn't have Izzy forcing me to take walks, I probably would never get any fresh air.
And my back . . . yikes. The physical pain of being a writer.
Time to call Lolita for another massage . . . after I go out for some fresh air!
Peace
Dawn
Now I'm going out to do some errands because I have a play to review tonight (one of my favorites: Orlando -- so appropriate since the subject matter mimics Analyzing's story), and I need to get up from this chair!
One thing no writer ever tells you is how much it physically hurts the body to be on deadline. The long and short of it: I've been working on the edits for this novel since November. Around the middle of December, I finished a major rewrite and sat down at the computer to type it in. I ate the same meal every day for a week (I typically make a soup, a big one, and since I live alone, I need to eat the whole thing), and by the time I was close to finished, my back, shoulders, and neck had become a fiery mess. I finished it, went directly into the holiday season, and asked my friend Lolita for some help (she's a masseuse and worked on loosening my back so I could begin the second half).
I printed the draft and went through the book once again, inserting scenes where there was a need, deleting characters, adjusting the flow of the narrative. I had made as many notes on this second run through as I had previously . . . so it was time to sit down at the computer and plug in more edits.
Don't get me wrong. These are not the first two edits this manuscript has seen. Not by a long shot! This story is about six years old and has changed dramatically through major overhauls (including one at a writer's colony in Vermont, where I had chunks of the manuscript all over the room and hanging on the walls).
Another week of nonstop typing, and I'm done. I have eaten mostly peanut butter and drank a lot of wine. I haven't gone out much and rarely change from an old t-shirt, a pair of sloppy pants, and slippers that have seen better days. If I didn't have Izzy forcing me to take walks, I probably would never get any fresh air.
And my back . . . yikes. The physical pain of being a writer.
Time to call Lolita for another massage . . . after I go out for some fresh air!
Peace
Dawn
December 5, 2016
The Monks and Me
The Monks and Me: How 40 Days in Thich Nhat Hanh's French Monastery Guided Me Home by Mary PatersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Monks and Me gave me the intimacy I wanted with the monk Thich Nhat Hanh while also giving me insight into a woman's mindset as she struggles to find herself within the construct of one of the best known monasteries in the world. I received what I wanted from the story, and then some.
Paterson's voice is a bit sardonic, a little rough around the edges, and honest. She never shies away from her own faults and offers the reader an unvarnished view inside her foibles. She is a woman searching for her self and we are on that journey with her 100%.
Her writing is pithy and her scenes are interesting. In each of her chapters, there is a bit of a lesson on human dignity and self-respect. She questions herself, and in her questioning, she makes the reader do a bit of internal dialogue, as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, Paterson's writing, and learning more about Thay. The organization of the story in bits and pieces was a smart one, and it left me wanting more. That's a good thing.
View all my reviews
December 2, 2016
It's the Holidays!
I don't know about you, but I'm mighty happy that all my Christmas shopping was done before Thanksgiving. I'm a huge fan of online shopping and not really into dealing with crowds in big box stores. I also love to buy from friends who are artists, writers, or small business owners. It's great to get something that you know no one else is going to have!
During this shopping season, I've been giving my readers little "gifts" on my Facebook page. If they watch a short video and listen to a small sample from one of my books, they can either get a free book or a calendar or whatever else I decide to give away that day. It's been a blast doing the readings! I do hope my readers like hearing them as much as I like doing them. Here's a couple of links, just in case you might like to listen: https://www.facebook.com/dawnrenolangley
And now I have to get back to work on my next novel, Analyzing the Prescotts...
Peace,
Dawn
During this shopping season, I've been giving my readers little "gifts" on my Facebook page. If they watch a short video and listen to a small sample from one of my books, they can either get a free book or a calendar or whatever else I decide to give away that day. It's been a blast doing the readings! I do hope my readers like hearing them as much as I like doing them. Here's a couple of links, just in case you might like to listen: https://www.facebook.com/dawnrenolangley
And now I have to get back to work on my next novel, Analyzing the Prescotts...
Peace,
Dawn
November 11, 2016
The Silver Dolphin Giveaway Winners -- and What Next?
The last of the Giveaways I started listing months ago ended yesterday, and as I pack up this stack of books, I wonder whether I should do another Giveaway for each book or put that money toward an ad on Facebook, say, or in a magazine.
As an author, I am the president and CEO of a small business: my writing business. During the past year, I incorporated my business so that I could publish my series of writing journals, thus Rewired Creatives, Inc. was born. Under that umbrella is my old DBA, Reno's Literary Services, and other little odds and ends of business ventures. I have to be really careful about where I put my meager marketing budget. Make it work for me. More bang for the buck, or better yet, free.
As a writer with books on the market, I must do what I can to help them find readers. For without readers, I would be a worthless author.
So the conundrum is what to do. How do I let more readers know something about the type of books I write? What's the best way to reach my audience? How can I spread the word more effectively?
I need to think about this, but right now, I'm thinking of a more immediate issue. I'm going to Africa!
Peace
Dawn
As an author, I am the president and CEO of a small business: my writing business. During the past year, I incorporated my business so that I could publish my series of writing journals, thus Rewired Creatives, Inc. was born. Under that umbrella is my old DBA, Reno's Literary Services, and other little odds and ends of business ventures. I have to be really careful about where I put my meager marketing budget. Make it work for me. More bang for the buck, or better yet, free.
As a writer with books on the market, I must do what I can to help them find readers. For without readers, I would be a worthless author.
So the conundrum is what to do. How do I let more readers know something about the type of books I write? What's the best way to reach my audience? How can I spread the word more effectively?
I need to think about this, but right now, I'm thinking of a more immediate issue. I'm going to Africa!
Peace
Dawn
