Lisa Manifold's Blog, page 7

Blather

I sat here, taking a break from WIP, because I finished the previous WIP, and sent it off to my editor post-haste. I’m already regretting it, in spite of revision-ing for two days straight. I found my notes re: developmental discussions, and there’s more that needs to be in there. *sigh*

Couldn’t figure out what to title this, because late night is when I do a lot of my musing, and poking around on Facebook and Writer’s Cafe. I felt like letting some of my brilliant late-night thoughts out into the great wide world. (stop laughing.)

After some more chin-stroking (were I a guy, I’d have a goatee that I stroked whilst thinking. Not that I want one – just were I a guy, I’d have one), what I want to share with you are my thoughts on being selfish.

I’m an author. Not really successful at this point, but I’m working on it, and feel good. More than that, I’m a stay at home mom. That latter job is a recipe for losing your life.

I have to back up a bit. Before I met my husband, I didn’t think I would get married. I had a few false starts in the “We’re getting marrrrriiiieeeeedd!” department, but that’s all they were. When I met him, and I swear to god, I came home and told my mom, I knew I was going to marry him. True story. First night we met. Took me a month to get to meet him, because he completely ignored all my flirtation.

Since I was determined I was too much of a high-maintenance individual to find A)Someone who’d put up with me and still love me and B)Someone I’d love and want to put up with, I wasn’t planning on having kids either. Believe it or not, given how rabid I am about my kiddos, I was okay with that. Can’t miss what you don’t know.

But once we got married, and had been married a while – and folks, we got married and moved onto a 38-foot houseboat – and were there for two years – we started talking about kids. We weren’t sure we wanted them, but it was on the table. We decided it was time, and moved off the boat. I will say, we both still miss waking up living on the water.

I found that being pregnant, people fuss over you in the craziest fashion. Once you HAVE the baby, you get nothin’. Nada. Bubkes. It’s all about that squiggly bundle of joy. I remember thinking, I am more than Darling Oldest’s mom. While I thought that, I didn’t go any further.

Then, we had Darling Youngest. And I, for the first time in my adult life, stopped working. I became a SAHM.

OY.

I was happy to go back to work several years later. I LIKE work. Why? Because I am Lisa. Not just Mrs. Mani, or Darling Boys’ Mom. I was ME.

And there it is. I think we all struggle with that – with still being ME. Because once we get involved with others, and bring little people into the equation, we lose the ME. It’s not for negative reasons – it’s a good thing to want to give to those you love. But, and this is just MPO, and completely anecdotal, I think we lose all sense of balance.

There MUST be a balance of give and ME. You can’t lean too far in either direction. If you give too much, you begin to harbor resentment, and the things you are resentful over pile up, and it takes less and less to activate that resentment.

Conversely, you go too much in the ME direction, and the other people living with you begin to resent the hell out of you.

For me, finding that balance feels a lot like the never-ending tightrope. I love my family. Marrying my husband and having my Darling Boys are the three best decisions I’ve ever made. Also, taking my husband’s advice when we decided that I would once again be a SAHM to focus on my writing was equally amazing. I’ve never been happier with my professional life. And I don’t even go into an office.

I have a lot of people that I know/like/admire/etc who seem to be experiencing marital discord, and those that I talk to – there seems to be that lack of balance between the give and the ME. I know I’ve watched the demise of relationships before my husband that fell victim to that.

When if we were taught, Yes, you must give, and you must put yourself on that list of people who are given to – we’d be happier people. In my humble, unlearned opinion.

I hate to see the discord. As someone who has struggled with ME vs what I think I’m supposed to do, I’d bet that struggle has a great deal in the reasons for discord.

So the TL; DR of all this – it’s okay to be selfish. It’s okay to give to those you love – as long as you put yourself on that list. It’s okay to want to be YOU.

Publishing 101

Since I self-published, and am actually talking with people I know about it (it’s a weird thing – you get sort of shy, and don’t always tell people, because you’re tooting your own horn, and we’re taught that is not the best, but in order to be successful, people do need to know about you – regardless, I’m telling people about my writing without an ounce of shame) I have gotten a lot of questions about the hows and mechanics of the entire thing.

I’ve thought about writing a post about it, but frankly, I’m still too “in” it, if you KWIM. I know there’s a forest, and I try to remember that, but my POV is a tree. Maybe 12. So I am borrowing the words of another, and I really like this.

People, ANYONE can publish.

ANYONE. You just have to want to do it.

IMO, you need to decide why you’re doing it – is it a family thing, a cookbook? Memoir? Something with a specific, limited audience? Then not everything you read about re: indie publishing applies.

But one thing does – I want anything I publish to be commercial quality work. That means I have a good cover – one that tells the reader what this is about, and gives them a hint on the story – and genre, if you’re writing as a career.

Get the thing edited. I’m not wretched, but my editor still sends me comment boxes of ‘WTF????’ at times. See above for the whole forest/trees analogy.

And read this below. It’s a great article, not a long, drawn-out read, and it gives a starting place. At least, I think it does.

http://authors.choosybookworm.com/pen-pals-community-indie-authors/

Happy Writing!

Wha…where did June and July go????

Sooooo….here it is, end of July. I planned to to be SO much further along than I am now. Yes, I am still on schedule, and thank god, because I am sticking to my pub deadlines come hell or high water, but daaaaaang.

This is HARD.

I have the best two jobs in the world. Seriously. I get to stay at home with my kids. Not everyone does, and I can’t tell you how thrilled that I can. Our family has been fortunate that we’ve been able to do this, because my Beloved and I both believe that kids need a parent at home. It’s good for them. LOL – they may not think so when Mom’s always on them, and tells them daily that this is NOT a frat house, and I am NOT a maid – but it’s good for them.

Nope. Much as I love this movie (SAP, my sister and I, can quote it on the fly to one another), this is not that house.No matter how hard they try.

And let’s not forget I have a tween. While my tween is a boy, so I’m not getting the hair flips of my past tossed back to me, I do get a lot of this:

Well.

It’s not like either of my kiddos went begging for their attitudes. My dad just laughs into his drink when he sees this sort of thing. He can be heard muttering ‘Karma’ or something similar.

So that’s been my summer. Along with an amazing road trip that took us through the Southwest. You MUST go and see the Grand Canyon, and go to both the South and North Rims if you can. They’re very different.

Now that I am back into, sort of, some kind of schedule, I am slowly getting back to my pre-summer behavior. Wrote over 5,000 words yesterday. It felt good.

Both One Night At The Ball and Casimir’s Journey will be out shortly. Like, really shortly. Like, Holy Hell, is that the date shortly. My editor loves me.

OK. Back to the doc.

Summer thus far…

The person who made the above meme is a genius. A friggen genius. Because in that one little sentence, it sums up my last month.

My kids got out of school in early June. Yay me, right?

No. Even though the last two weeks were a whirlwind of things to go to, be ready for, etc, it was nothing like the past month. I have had company, which I LOVED. Please don’t misunderstand. I love the people who are willing to come and stay with me.

But I get nothing done. And normally, folks, this wouldn’t be a bad thing. Because I love my days of lazy.

L-O-V-E.

However, I have been blessed and fortunate enough to stop working outside the home, and be an author. Yes, with Thea’s Tale now in digital and print form, I call myself an author. In a slight topic change, it’s rather scary to title myself that. I’ve never assigned myself a career before. It’s always been something I’ve been hired for, or gone to school for, or whatever. One more new and awesome thing about being Lisa Manifold, Author.

Back on topic. While everyone was in school, I had 4-5 hours a day to write. And I did. Now – pffffft. Nada. It’s late and I’m hiding out in front of the computer. I should be writing, and I have a project to finish. But it’s so nice, so very nice, to be here, sitting alone, in the peace and quiet for the first time in nearly a month that I am not hyper-focused on task, but am doing all the little things I’ve missed, like writing in my blog. Catching up on my boards.

On the positive side, I had an amazing time with my family. Mesa Verde, the Grand Canyon, and Glenwood Springs. All with kids old enough to see and appreciate the places we were. We clung to toe-and-footholds in Mesa Verde. Stargazed at the Grand Canyon. Did slides and sat in the therapy chairs in Glenwood. Those are memories that will be with me always. I hope that the same will be true for my kids. Just for fun, here’s all of us on a short mule trip. I wanted to get them introduced to the idea of mule rides, because one of my bucket list items for the family is a mule ride to the bottom of the canyon.

It was amazing. So there’s that.

But I’m greedy. I want it all. ALLLL. I love what I do. I love that I’m a mom. Didn’t plan on it, ever. But decided to have kids, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Love that my sweetie works hard for us all so one of us can be with the kids. I also love that I get to work from home, and do the best job I’ve ever had.

And THAT is what I am whining about. That I haven’t been able to go to work for weeks. I MISS it. Like crazy.

Having whined, and off-topic-ed all over you all, I am now going to report that Casimir’s Journey is still on track for August. One Night At The Ball is in final stages, and I am working on getting it to my editor. The cover is GORGEOUS. Absolutely gorgeous. For those of you who have read Thea’s Tale, this is the story of Catrin as a young woman. I’ve had readers ask, What is the deal with Catrin? She needs to have some wine and chill out.

Well, Catrin has…issues. She really does. She’s awful to Thea. Almost irrationally so. I’m hoping, with One Night At The Ball, it’s a little more clear as to why. Just for funs and teases, here’s the cover.

I’m really excited for this. Catrin’s story came to me while writing Thea’s. It made what happened in Thea’s Tale so much more…understandable to me.

SO. There’s my month. I’m looking forward to being back on track, getting some writing time back into my schedule, while enjoying the family for the last bit of summer vaca. I know, some of you are saying What? It’s only July! We have odd schedules here.

I’ve dawdled long enough. Need to get back to work.

The Woe is Meeee!

I belong to a great group. Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I have been a member for almost two years now, and have taken the step to volunteer for more. Recently, I took over the task of Newsletter Editor.

Whoa. Whoawhoawhoa. Woe.

The previous editor let me know it’s about ten hours of work a month. She was right. More, this time. Why? Because it was my first time putting one together – the first time putting ANY newsletter together. So let’s just say, ‘learning curve‘ and leave it at that.

Well, actually, let’s not. I really like MS Office Publisher. It’s fairly easy – but – and this is a big but – the templates are NOT your friend. Maybe it’s because I am newsletter-impaired, but a fair amount of my learning curve was trying to work with the templates. Which I chose because I thought, Oh, this will make things easier.

No. Just. No. That’s where it went to Woe. Much, much woe.

Finally, I tossed the template, and started from scratch. Did it all myself. Note to self and you – look at the Page Parts section. Then look at the additional parts link offered. Parts is parts, but using them made it look better.

In a year, I’ll look back and give a scoffing laugh at my humble efforts, I’m sure. But right now, I feel pretty good. Because I taught myself something that I hadn’t done before. With only a normal amount of colorful descriptives (see previous post).

As well, as an indie author, being able to put together a newsletter that you’re not ashamed of is important. It’s one of the ways you communicate to your readers. With One Night at the Ball releasing soon, I’ll be sending out my first newsletter. Now I know how to do it. I won’t lie, the thought of building one has been rather daunting. But having put together one in a really short time frame because I tossed my initial work – I know I can do it, and it won’t be all that bad.

So there’s my PSA today. Go outside of the things you normally do. Learn a skill – and don’t be afraid to step up and volunteer to learn it. Things that confounded me – I went and Googled them. You can find anything on Google. You can usually find a video of how to do it. (Yes, I know this intimately.)

But everything you learn can be used moving forward. And we should never, ever stop learning. Something to keep in mind – because it’s easy to forget when you’re just trying to get through the day.

Celebrating the small things

So through one of the people who have stopped by, I discovered this wonderful thing, a blog hop. I hadn’t heard of it before, but I did a little reading, and I love the idea. You post a celebratory thing – whatever that thing is – on your blog on Fridays.

It’s easy to be a bitcher. I’m pretty good at it sometimes. I have to stop myself, and remind me that I do indeed have a good life, and a lot of my stuff is first world complaints.

I love the idea of celebrating the good stuff! So here goes.

This week, I am kind of back on schedule. I had company last week, and as much as I would love to move in with all those ladies (I’m serious) I am excited to be back to the regularly scheduled program.

This week I made it to all my kids’ stuff. Presentations, gathering the items for the presentations, and a field trip. Plus a doctor’s appointment.

AND – I uploaded my second bit of my serial novel. I’m finishing the next bit today. I also managed to make a decent cover. That’s a feat.

It looks like my novella will be done in a (relatively) timely fashion. Fingers crossed.

What’s your good stuff today? We all have it. Mine are all small. But add them together, and I think, dang. I had a good week.

For those who have lost family in the service of our nation, I thank you. And my thoughts are with you. Being willing to die for something is so damned noble, I don’t have words. Thank you.

We owe it to them to look up, see the small things, and enjoy them.

http://lexacain.blogspot.hk/2015/01/celebrate-small-things.html

The Warm-n-gushies

So my book has been out for a little while.

Most of the people who bought it know me. Bless them.

But – there are those who I don’t know, and I bless them for taking a chance on it as well. Because they don’t even have the excuse of knowing me, LOL.

I’m going public here, and saying I took a Big Chance with the ending. BIG CHANCE.

I am a passionate reader, and I ADORE the HEA – the Happily Ever After. A-DORE. As a reader, I am pissed, as in go online and bitch pissed, when I don’t get a HEA, or when the author chooses ambiguity. I said it. I’ll go to my fave reader forums and complain.

Except. And here’s my saving grace – except when I know the author is doing a series and they’re not gonna leave me hanging there on the cliff edge like the hapless heroine from the talkies.

So back to me, since it’s all about my warm-n-gushies. My ending for Thea’s Tale was a chance. I took it, because it’s been the ending since I started thinking about this book last year, and I KNEW I was doing a series, so I could….well….stretch out the HEA.

Because trust me, I believe and support and adore the HEA.

The response I’ve gotten from those who have read it, both the folks who know me and those wonderful strangers who don’t is “Wha—-??? WTH, Lisa? Where’s the next one?” If they know me, a, ah, colorful descriptive may be attached to that last sentence.

So today, I heard from someone whose email addy I don’t recognize. And the person was commenting on the ending, and how they needed the next book. I read the notification, and sat back in the Chair of Creativity and Knowledge, and was stunned. Pleased, and stunned.

Someone I don’t know was affected enough by my Big Chance to not only NOT hate me, but tell me to bring it on with the next one.

I LOVE that. I don’t have enough colorful descriptives to express how much love there is.

With that, One Night At The Ball will be out by month’s end. (My editor is colorful descripting me right now.)

Casimir’s Journey has an August 2015 publication date. Given the feedback, and my overall schedule, I am working (I swear!) on getting it done sooner. (Editor is gnashing teeth again.)

The feels, guys. Seriously.

The….Feels.

Random-osity

I was thinking about my blog, and thought, Oh. I haven’t posted in a while. Bad Lisa. But then, I haven’t had a lot to post.

I had to clean my house like mad, because my friends were visiting and I got a case of the “I must clean or they will judge me and talk about me in whispers” syndrome. That makes me laugh, because none of my friends care about that, but I think we all THINK they do. Until everyone shows up, the wine bottle is opened, and you realize that all is really well, and no one cares that your dog pooped on the deck. (I have a little dog. He hates going downstairs to the grass.)

So that’s what I did for two weeks. Cleaned. Organized. Got ready for people to come to my house and actually stay. It ended up being so much fun. I didn’t sleep well because we stayed up and laughed hysterically over stupid stuff. For nearly a week.

Now everyone is gone, and the end of year school stuff is hitting. I don’t want to embarrass myself with the number of emails I got updating me that contained things of complete mystery and surprise to me. I believe there may have been a response to a teacher inquiring whether I had actually signed up to chaperone a field trip occurring this week.

Why yes, I am indeed Mother of the Year. LOL.

Needless to say, this is cutting into my writing time. I have a set schedule, so I’m a bit tetchy. I’ll live, and make my deadlines but lord. I WANTED to write all week.

However, I tell myself that my kiddos will not want me around for much longer as a chaperone for field trips, or anything else for that matter. I enjoy their field trips, and being with them. They still enjoy me. Since they are my children, I can already see glimpses of how teenager-hood is going to go, and it ain’t gonna be pretty. I want to enjoy having a relationship with my kids while they still let me.

That’s my public service announcement for tonight. Hang with your kids while they’ll let you. You can make your deadline for whatever it is you still need to get done. Blink, and they’ll be ditching you in public whenever they can.

Wish me luck in the dissection field trip.

Thoughts on my first week.

Thea’s Tale went live on Tuesday. It’s been a great week. It’s getting a little traction. A couple of reviews, some borrows,some sales. I’m pleased. It’s staying in the top 100 for my genre, and in the Hot New Release section for my genre. All of that is fantastic.

So I’m browsing around Kboards today, and I come upon a thread that makes me go to Google, and see what I find.

What do I find? Evidence of the same thing the author of the thread was discussing. My book had been pirated.

In all honesty, I don’t know what to do. I want to be outraged, and in way, I am. At the same time, I know it’s part of digital publishing.

I think it’s a measure of how much I’ve read about this that my first thought, upon seeing the page with my work on there (other than, How in the hell did they get an audio book download? I haven’t done anything near audio yet!) was…Well, wow. There are reviews.

Wish they’d post them on Amazon. So I am posting them here.

Sowder
May 9th, 2015 at 10:11 am

Surprise! I actually like this.

Bridgetwdiann3
May 9th, 2015 at 5:31 pm

OH MY GOD! This has got to be one of…if not the best book I have ever read. It was written so well, and the characters were all amazing.

She’s Here! She’s Here!

I can’t believe it! The day is finally here! Thea’s Tale is finally out and for sale!

I am SO excited.