More developments in my writing world

January 2016 has been quite interesting. All of the sudden, writing opportunities are pouring in.

1. I contacted a dear friend of the family this summer about getting his deceased wife's memoir reprinted by my publisher. Unfortunately, her original files were locked, and it took him until now to get that figured out.  He contacted me that the files were open and ready; we are going to talk about sending it to the publisher.  Plus, he has a lot of stories for a possible follow up book that we are going to discuss. He'd like me to write it.

2. Another friend, an actress, has wanted to write, act, and produce her own one-woman show. She's asked me to help her co-write it.

3. My writing group tends to come up with cool and creative ideas for co-writing projects. One of the writers and I have already started the first steps for a new short.  We also talked about me going out to California this summer, where we might look at producing it.

4. Both of my children's books are now with my illustrator.  I hope that book #2 will come out in the spring and #3 in the fall.  Yay for Baxter!


I started back on writing daily "morning papers," from The Artist's Way.  It has helped me skim and purge the junk I need to get out of my head in order to focus on current projects.

Books are moving and grooving!

November and December were great months for getting my second and third children's books moving forward. Linkville Press got a new illustrator, and he has book 2 in hand. I submitted book three to my editor in December.  I'm hoping for a May publish for book 2 and a September for book 3.

Working on The Collective, a screenplay

I'm back working on my screenplay from my master's program. It was my thesis and final project, and I still really like the story. However, since my program, conversations with my daughter, and the many social issues I follow, I'm looking harder at the really smaller details.

I want to look at race, gender, and orientation - stereotypes and role models.  I noticed the words one of my characters (a jerk and the antagonist) uses, and I made a few changes. HE might actually use some hate-filled words, but then I also want to keep some of that out of my movie. I don't want to perpetuate hate. I've tweaked just a few words, and I think the message is just as strong without promoting stereotypes or bringing up hurt.

Words are really important. I changed "messed up" to "did" and the whole connotation and implied backstory shifted. I want my antagonist to be the jerk we all hate, but I don't want other tropes to follow along like implied baggage. I can make changes, which hopefully changes how the audience relates to my characters.

What do readers want?

My daughter and I were sitting and talking with my daughter of dinner. Suddenly, she became very interested in my writing. She said I needed to write about characters who don't want children. (We had a sitcom on TV in the background where the couple wanted to have a baby.) Then she went on to add that more movies and TV shows needed characters who were bisexual, pan-sexual, gender fluid, asexual, etc.

When I wrote my first children's book, the story was based on a family event.  We are Irish/Italian primarily. Pretty white. Mom, Dad, brother, sister.  However, I did have some choices when it came to illustrations.  I decided to have a mixed-race family because there aren't many characters out there for those families. But, making characters in a children's book different skin tones is easy.  What am I to do about all of the different traits my daughter was asking for? 

It's an area I'm not personally familiar with, and I want to stay authentic.  I'm glad my daughter has faith in me and things I might write in the future. It does give me a lot to think about. 

What are you writing when you aren't really "writing?"

Today, I've made sure to do several activities related to my life coaching, teaching, and writing endeavors. One thing I've noticed (especially with life coaching) is the amount of writing and non-writing/business efforts we do just to support what ever we ARE doing.

Life coaching is a great example. I need to make checks to my website, make sure I've got some Facebook and social media connections going, etc. Today, I finally decided to create a Blogger blog for my coaching since I was continuing to have issues with my Go Daddy account.  Go Daddy is great, and I can count on them for the best customer support, but it just seemed faster to plug in a blog with Blogger. I use it all the time for teaching and writing. Why not.

There may be several hours per week of business work that isn't actually the life coaching!  But, if it doesn't get done, then the life coaching won't happen.

The same is true with your writing life.  Even if I'm not actually writing on one of my creations for publication or contests, I'm creating my presence on social media, working on my writing blog, reading about writing, or working through journals and exercises.  Those activities are part of this whole process and writing life. I have to remind myself that the minutes spent on these activities are absolutely as valuable as the time with my pieces.

It's like sports, music, plays/movies, anything in life.  So much back work is put into the final "performance." Give yourself credit for or get on the ball with the back work.

February 4 - a milestone (drafted in Feb, whoops)

Early this morning (because she is a night owl living several time zones away), my publisher sent me a message that our sales reports were available. Merry Christmouse was just published in time for Christmas last year, so the window for sales was short, but timed beautifully for Christmas shopping.

My book sales earned me Best Seller for the 4th Quarter 2014. A good feeling indeed. My goal was to sell beyond my 1st degree of friends and family, and I believe I accomplished that. I think solid sales and a very warm reception is a great start. I don't have goals on the J.K.Rowling level, and "solid" is good for my future book sales and endeavors. 

Feb5 -second milestone (drafted in Feb, whoops)

Another great moment in publishing- your first royalty check. Even up to this week, I was thinking that I would finish the Baxter series and move on to other endeavors in writing, not necessarily in the print realm. However, with the receipt of sales reports and royalty checks, I may reconsider.

That check allowed my daughter and I to go out to dinner, and I think I got myself a little trinket.  Not Earth-shattering, but very nice.