2014 was supposed to be my year, wasn’t it? I had so many plans for myself. Now March is drawing to a close and most days
I feel worse about myself than ever before.
In some ways I blame the weather.
Every time I craft plans for myself, things I want to accomplish, it
seems that it snows or rains again. How nice
would it be to string together three nice days in a row? Money also continues to be a worry; I was
overdrawn at the bank this month for the first time in over five years. My lack of income was always a concern but
somehow I managed to keep a positive balance despite having no steady job after
December 2010. I’m sure things are going
to be dodgy money-wise at least through my birthday, which is no longer the
financial windfall it was once upon a time.
The older you get, the less people care about you. That’s the honest truth. I literally cannot afford to buy Heart
Trouble even though it is now available in paperback. I do hope that things can eventually turn
around, that at some point I can recapture my previous sales success in
publishing. I am trying to finish two
different books, and I have another idea in the queue. I just don’t have much confidence in my
writing anymore, which matches the fact that I’ve never had any confidence in
myself.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
Paperback Writer
At long last, Heart Trouble is available to order in
paperback form. To be honest, I cannot
afford to buy a copy of my own novel, which should tell you something about the
ups and downs of being a writer. Heart
Trouble was not one of my longer novels, and it is a quick read. But it also marks the point where I changed
my writing style and tried to branch out into some different territory. I’m not sure when it will be available but it
is up for ordering, and that is the important fact given my long wait time. Then again, publishing tends to move at the
speed of a glacier, and the only way to have a book available immediately is to
print it yourself.
http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Trouble-Tommie-Conrad/dp/1440571457/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1395666617&sr=8-1&keywords=heart+trouble+tommie
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Adaptation
My last novel was written in twenty-one days, which
may or may not be a statistic worth repeating.
With the current one, however—I am 23,000 words into it—I find myself
being a lazy writer, not having added any text for the past three days. I think my lack of initiative may be the
result of several different factors:
indifference to my last two books, lack of attachment to my current
characters, or perhaps a loss of my writing inspiration. I can clearly see my hero and heroine, the
progression of their relationship and its ultimate endgame, but I don’t think I’ve
been happy enough lately to give anyone else’s story its proper
conclusion. I have grown increasingly
disenchanted not with writing but with lip service. I have eagerly been
anticipating the paperback of my published novel for months now, as I have
plans in my mind to promote it to a magazine with a large readership and wide
coverage. As the months pass, it seems
increasingly pointless: if the book is ever printed, I will ship it for review,
but it becomes a question of timeliness; will anyone care if the book is a year
old by that point? Have I missed my chance
to make a big push and have people by the book?
I know all authors—all people, really—must multitask, and I can do it as
well (or as poorly) as anyone. But it’s
very difficult to accomplish your goals when you have so much on your mind.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Cover of Darkness
Regular readers of this blog will remember that I wrote
a 72,000 word novel during the first twenty-one days of National Novel Writing
Month (NaNoWriMo). The turnaround time
on this novel was not so great—it took me three months from completion to
publication, which admittedly is shorter than most publishing lead times. I was lackadaisical when it came to editing,
holding off on the business of revisions until January, nearly two months after
it was complete! I at least have a valid
excuse for the slowness of the rest of the project: snow. The
weather has made it very difficult—make that extremely difficult—to get to a
decent internet connection and upload my book.
I also struggled with crafting a cover.
I’m still not one-hundred-percent happy with the covers of “Dark Horse”
or “Cover of Darkness”, but you get what you pay for. And employing myself as a graphic designer is
certainly economical. I have no clue if
the novel is any good, but I enjoyed writing it. As always, readers, I leave my success in
your hands.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
The Dangers of Procrastination
Call this particular blog a cautionary tale. I completed a novel for NaNoWriMo back in
November and it has been mentioned extensively in this blog. For most of the next two months I did very
little editing before jumping in feet-first in January. As usual I was fairly happy with what I had
written: generally speaking I only
change words and restructure sentences during the editing process. After two-and-a-half edits, I was ready to
publish. I styled and began the upload
process. Herein lies the problem; due to
the poor winter weather I have been unable to venture out and get everything
done at once. I have to travel to the public
library in order to achieve a suitable internet connection. I first began production of the books nearly
two weeks ago, and while I completed the e-book in two sittings—I plan to redo
the cover at some point—the paperback remains in the queue, with a cover that
also needs to be edited amongst numerous other items on the checklist. This experience has taught me that my focus
needs to be on producing and promoting product in a timely manner. Yes, the book needs to be a quality product,
but it shouldn’t be a burden that consumes too much extra thought outside of
giving the finished item some promotional muscle. Lesson learned.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Songs for Sale
I’m never quite sure how to frame a blog that’s
little more than a sales pitch, but I wanted to put it out there for anyone who
didn’t know, or hadn’t bought a copy, that Heart Trouble is available for 1.99
on Amazon for the entire month of February.
I’ve posted the links on Facebook and twitter several times, and I will
now post it for anyone who might have missed it or is interested in the e-book.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Cabin Fever
I am not even sure when I will be able to post this
blog—that’s how bad the weather has been.
People are fond of saying that the summers are
warmer, and that the years are heating up until the point that the polar ice
caps will melt and we will all need snorkels.
I can’t find any evidence of such an occurrence. This is undoubtedly the
worst winter I can remember in the past twenty years. In the winters of 1993 and 1994 I can
remember missing plenty of school due to the snow. Even the interstates were shut down due to
the inclement weather and poor conditions.
While we have yet to experience (thankfully) the two-foot blizzards of
snow of my childhood, this winter has been interminable. It got an early start, snowing before
Thanksgiving and seldom letting up since.
Christmas was thankfully free of anything heavier than a dusting. Then the Arctic air swept down from above and
put us in an icebox. For most of January
it has been the same pattern: cold, snow, brutal cold, snow, more brutal cold,
more snow. I have never been so eager
for warm weather in my entire life. It
is difficult in these conditions to find the motivation to do anything. Lately I have been trying to keep busy but
there are only so many episodes of Dallas you can watch and only so many pages
of a book to read before your eyes get tired.
Whatever else has come to pass due to the cold weather, one truth
remains: I picked the absolute right
time to grow a beard.
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