Enlighten. Or, inform, apprise, advise, acquaint, familiarize, instruct, to understand, disclose, shed light. All things that a writer needs to do. As any human being should do. But as a writer, as a published author, in this age it is more important than ever to continue to be informed and “enlighten” ourselves in many areas.
Introvert. That’s me too. I’m not good on the public connection thing. And this world of social media is truly a challenge for me. I’m really not a social kind of person, but as a reasonably intelligent person, I understand the need to engage. As well as familiarize, and I have to accept the challenge of engaging more directly. I know these things to be true. But it certainly doesn’t make things easy.
This is a very complicated world, and it certainly isn’t enough to just write the story and find a publisher these days. Because of the reduction in earnings and the loss of my publishers to the ever-changing technological advancements, big business, and ease of publishing these days, it’s become more important than ever to become familiar with all the facets of this publishing world, and the world at large. I have to learn many new things, and some of the programs can be damned complicated to learn. But the reality is, we never stop learning, from birth to death. When we stop trying to engage and understand, that is a death in itself, I think.
It’s call the narrow-the-focus, one-step-at-at-a-time progression. Take Adobe. Learning Photoshop and creating book covers and marketing banners and such is an ongoing challenge for me. Formatting ebooks and paperbacks using Word or Adobe InDesign. We aren’t evening going to the audio book thing for the moment. As I said, one-step-at-a-time.
Thank goodness for some of the educational channels on YouTube, and how-tos at Adobe and Microsoft. And Google. Most times I get caught with something I can’t figure out, I can Google it, and it gets me to the answer I need. Because I sure can’t afford to hire out everything, not at the pay rate for today’s indie authors and the noise in a very global marketplace.
It’s not easy, but being enlightened is necessary in order to continue to write. Luckily, I enjoy taking photographs as well, so a lot of the backgrounds in my book covers are created from photographs I’ve taken.
And this is where my bullet journal also comes in handy. Narrowing focus, that challenge – what one particular challenge, or goal, that’s been niggling at me, do I want to face today? Only that one. Figure that out, then I can move on to the next. Because if I go to broad, the summons blockage, freezing in place, and ultimately procrastination and putting everything off to another day, which likely will never come.
Getting more than 100 stories back out into the marketplace after having rights returned to me from publishers, has been, and continues to be a daunting prospect. And to write new stories, and to work at independent contracting work not related to writing in order to pay bills, is quite the juggle of time.
But I’m not a giver-upper. I make mistakes along the way, I learn or become more enlightened from those mistake, and hopefully improve what I’m doing because of that. I can’t be afraid to keep going. I can’t remain stagnant. I will persevere.
The ancient myths of the Brotherhood of the Midnight Pearl tell of an island formed from the depths of the ocean, in the midst of a sea of mystical, sapphire beauty. It is an island paradise built on love and devotion to a common belief, a society made up entirely of handsome and desirable men. And Alonzo Smith is on a journey to discover his place among them.
Passion awaits on the Northern Shores far from the arid heat of her desert home. Lessons in pleasure from a water-dweller awaken a desire that is doomed from the beginning, because Elita Watende, youngest daughter of the High Lord of the Desert Borders, has been promised to the Lord Guardian of the Northern Shores. The match is tied to an important treaty for Elita’s rebellious tribe, and it is a union she cannot refuse.
I love Trumpeter Swans. And this is prime wintering season for Trumpeter Swans here in the Pacific Northwest. Shallow wetlands being prime nesting grounds, they should feel right at home in this area of Washington.
Swan pairs mate for life and usually form pair bonds on the winter grounds, often where the pen (female) was hatched. The pen will choose the nesting site, the cob (male) will defend it. A Trumpeter Swan’s life expectancy can span as much as 20 years. If one mate dies, the other with find another mate.
When I’m researching, I usually start with symbology, and in this story, I wanted to know what the swan symbol represented. What I found is this: Swan is a symbol of gracefulness and intuition. In alchemy, it is a symbol of hermaphroditism, being either male or female, It is a marriage of opposites – perfect for my story. But, of course, as any writer will, we take great liberties with the what-ifs, at least jumping one step farther. What if this, what if that? I’ve never been good at taking just one step…
Poppy “Little Red” Rider’s grandmother implores her to help a good friend—Moira, the Good Witch of the North—get back her son, who happens to be in the clutches of the powerful and heartless Ice Queen. Before undertaking the dangerous mission, however, Poppy selects two handsome, virile, and heroic companions to accompany her on the long journey—Will Hunter, who once saved Poppy and her grandmother’s life, and Gray, a wolf shapeshifter currently trapped in human form who’s distantly related to the demon wolves that almost killed Poppy and her grandmother.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday and looking forward to a great 2019. I’ve been doing some baking, and I’m currently sailing on a sugar high this week. Bad, bad girl am I. I’ll be better next week, I promise.
Eclectic Alchemy 