Emily Senecal's Blog: Latest News and Notes, page 5
June 16, 2017
The Definition of Success
I’m about a third of the way through writing my next novel, with a rough outline of the rest of the plot. As always, some days it’s much easier to get into the creative groove than others, but I continue to open up the file and plug away. If I don’t write, then I edit, or research, or put it aside and daydream—but the goal is always to get words on screen, as many as possible in one sitting.
I’ve also been thinking a lot about what it means to be a successful author. In a change from my usual...
December 13, 2016
The Very Best Days | author’s note
Writing can be a lonely and discouraging experience at times. Those inescapable dark days when we feel like we’ll never amount to anything and can’t write worth a damn (even though we know it’s our lying, double-crossing internal doubter talking), or when someone, even kindly, manages in word or action to dismiss or diminish what we’re working so hard to accomplish.
These are the not-so-fun moments, the lows and valleys of the process. When it’s hard to feel excited or inspired, and the creat...
The Very Best Days
Writing can be a lonely and discouraging experience at times. Those inescapable dark days when we feel like we’ll never amount to anything and can’t write worth a damn (even though we know it’s our lying, double-crossing internal doubter talking), or when someone, even kindly, manages in word or action to dismiss or diminish what we’re working so hard to accomplish.
These are the not-so-fun moments, the lows and valleys of the process. When it’s hard to feel excited or inspired, and the creat...
October 19, 2016
Telling Stories | author’s note
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
― Philip Pullman
One of the most extraordinary gifts of human consciousness is the gift of imagination. It’s something we don’t foster or value much in adulthood, not the way we do in children, though it’s a necessary tool of every storyteller from author to actor, teacher to scientist, musician to historian.
Because really, when it comes down to it, we’re all storytellers. And our imagination all...
Telling Stories
“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”
― Philip Pullman
One of the most extraordinary gifts of human consciousness is the gift of imagination. It’s something we don’t foster or value much in adulthood, not the way we do in children, though it’s a necessary tool of every storyteller from author to actor, teacher to scientist, musician to historian.
Because really, when it comes down to it, we’re all storytellers. And our imagination all...
July 21, 2016
Book 11, Saints and Enemies
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Saints and Enemies, Book 11 in the Sliding Sideways series, will be released on Kindle later this summer.
From the moment she arrives, nothing is as it seems…
Taking a much-needed break from her thriving career as an artist and gallery owner, Hannah Wood plans to spend a few weeks housesitting with her friends the Hofflins at a beautiful home in Marseille. A free place to stay, sunny skies and white sandy beaches in the picturesque south of France—she’d be a foo...
April 19, 2016
The Downsides of Writing: Underwhelm and Self-Doubt | author’s note
The cursor is taunting me. #feeltheslump
I think you could safely call it a slump. It’s a nice descriptive word, slump. It sounds like what it is.
Lately I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed with myself as an author, besieged by doubts. Who did I think I was, that I could really do this? At some point someone will catch onto the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing (many of my critical readers probably already have), and I’ll be kicked out of the club. The club that I don’t actually belong to a...
The Downsides of Writing: Underwhelm and Self-Doubt
The cursor is taunting me. #feeltheslump
I think you could safely call it a slump. It’s a nice descriptive word, slump. It sounds like what it is.
Lately I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed with myself as an author, besieged by doubts. Who did I think I was, that I could really do this? At some point someone will catch onto the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing (many of my critical readers probably already have), and I’ll be kicked out of the club. The club that I don’t actually belong to a...
December 16, 2015
Treat yourself to the entire series this holiday!
Get the entire series of 11 titles for as little as $1.98, beginning on Christmas Eve, for five days only.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and a joyful and fulfilling 2016!
-Emily
Book 1, Strangers on This Road: Lainey Parker’s first mystery, set on Catalina...
September 17, 2015
Downtime | author’s note
The last few months have been busy in my life outside writing, which means that while I’ve put a lot of thoughts in my journal I haven’t come up with any brilliant new ideas for books, have been stalled in any marketing efforts, just haven’t felt like working on any of it. It’s been a creative lull.
As I was beating myself up about this yet again this morning, I tried to remember what’s really true.
What’s really true is, writing is my hobby because I ENJOY it, not because it’s something I si...
