Back On The Grind, Forever the Phoenix

 I don't think anyone anticipates bad things happening.

I did not expect to be seven months after my original publication date and to no longer have that work published. But, guess what? Nothing is certain and things happen. And now, while I am in a good place and in many ways relieved, I am back to the writer's grind of shopping the work around and trying to find an agent and publisher.

I think I've grown and got stronger from this experience. I've taken a lot of kicking in the past year, not just from what happened with the book. A lot of things have happened, a lot of personal tragedy, a lot of absolute bullshit that could have been avoided. But, it's all done now so I have to make the best with what I have, and rebuild. Be reborn, so to speak.

I've done it before, I can do it again. I will do it again. I don't have any other option. And how often does a writer get to go back and revisit their first novel, and fix things? I have to make the most out of this situation.

So, I haven't given up. You have definitely not seen the last of me and my work.

I've been told that, all things considered, that I am doing rather well. If I couldn't take criticism, I would be in the wrong business. This is what writers do. We expose ourselves, take the good and bad, and continue to do so for the love of our work and our readers. And it's the comments and encouragement that I have received from readers that is really pushing me forward. I know that the people that Book 1 did touch enjoyed it, and I don't want to disappoint them.
I also cannot disappoint my Mother, god rest her soul. Going on without her is hard, it's going to be hard. It's going to stay hard, and its a tragedy that she left this earth. She was my best friend, in some ways my only friend, and it's lonely without her. It's a constant and ongoing work in progress. If I didn't have my writing to keep me sane I don't know what I would do.

Being back on the grind is unexpected, but an interesting experience. I am going the traditional route right now but my ideas on that may change. I've seen a lot of cool things done by people who put their books out themselves, and I do find it appealing. I don't think that self publishing is something that happens when no one else will publish you, as was the thought in the past, I think it's a conscious choice for a writer who wants to have much more control. I don't think it's for everybody, it's a lot more work then people might think, and I in no way think it's the easy way out. It's just Option B right now, but may turn to Option A.

But I am on the grind. Anyone else out there in a similar situation?
Any thoughts on traditional and self publishing?



I will be a phoenix and rise from the ashes of all the crap that has happened to me in the past year. I am considering adopting the phoenix as my personal mascot.