Now We Wait For The Game To Begin

I'm here at my daughter's first cheer practice. She's been fitted for her uniform and is playing team building games. Her anxiety is mostly gone. I still have a tad bit. It's new, I don't really know anyone sans the coach. She adjusts much more quickly out of her introvert status than I do.

It's probably why I like writing; it's solitary and doesn't require group interaction. Sad? Yes,but true.

People can be unpredictable. But not in my books. I know exactly where these people who these people are. Usually, they're self-conscious, quiet, low self-esteem... 

Gee, I wonder where that comes from.

But, they tend to realize their worth or find people who are committed to them in helping them realize the potential inside.

Now that I've started this self publishing trial (and I say trial because the low self-esteem in me thinks it won't go far), my boyfriend said to me the other day,"...and once this is published, you keep writing. And you don't stop."

And there's my motivator trying to help me realize my potential.

So let's cheer and get this game in gear, "Gooooooo Eve!"

Crawling Out of The Hole

Time has passed. Life goes on and my author persona dropped out of view. Over the last year, other things in life became more important and honestly, trying to make it full time as an author became less and less reality as my attempts as getting published dwindled.

Sure, sure. I've heard it before: so-n-so was refused and rejected one hundred sixty two times before she hit it big; so-n-so was in her 50s before she made it big. Yadda, yadda. Reality of everyday life won.

I am full time girlfriend and mother of three; keeping life running financially was frankly more important than writing. Sure, I'd get out the laptop, plug in the flash drive with my WOPs and write for a bit, but shit. I get tired! Vegging in front of the flat screen became much more appealing for the time.

I don't know. A month ago I decided it was time again. Push forward and self-publish. I'm in the process and extremely close, actually. It's not as hard as I thought. Well, the publishing on Kindle isn't. Of course, starting the advertising and self-promoting (which I suck at) is a little more grueling. It isn't surprising that I've chosen to begin my journey again at the holidays. Like I don't have enough going on. *eye roll*

So as I leap into the new adventure of self-publishing, I hope you all will join me.My publishing is actually re-publishing.The 3 stories put into one book have been published by publishers who've closed or are in the process of doing so.I'll keep you posted.

SHES ALIVE!!!!!!!

It seems my motivation as decided to catch up with the rest of me in the last week. It'sbeen like a whirlwind. Well at least like a stiff breeze.

In the last six to eight months, I've gone through a lot of personal changes and unfortunately, my muse had no desire to deal with my bullshit. She took a hiatus. So for the last few months I have struggled to even get a paragraph on a page. It's been pathetic. I was dead as a writer.

But I guess I forced her return. I took an assignment, a special call for work from a publisher. The piece I did was small, not even 6k words, but I got it done. It took much longer than it should have until Ms. I-Just-Don't-Feel-Like-Helping-You-Be-A-Writer decided to give me a little help. It was submitted last week.

My muse has decided to hang around. I'm more motivated than I have been in quite awhile. I've been mulling things over, thinking them through, talking with some people. I wrote a letter to a publisher and reworked a piece I finished a while a go. It's the sequel to one that was published a year ago. I started working on another paranormal piece. This one was also mostly ready to go but I was never happy with it. Maybe it needs more sex.

My friend, author Tess Black, asked me to do a blog for Valentine's Day and feature my short story Sweet Temptations. That can be found on her blog tessblack11.blogspot.com It looks really cool on her page.

I was supposed to do an author chat for authors of my one publisher tonight, but it ended up being three authors chatting about what they're working on.I thought it would be people asking questions and such. I left. I was bored. I'd rather write or in this case, blog.

Introducing Eve

Let's get it out there. I'm new to blogging. I have absolutely no clue as to what I'm doing or why the hell I'm even doing it. And doing a radio blog? WTF? That will never happen. Ever.

So, I'm jumping on the party train with the written blogging. Writing on a piece of paper is safe. Anyway, I'm Eve, a sort of an alter ego to my real self. Eve is a fabulously creative author of paranormal and contemporary gay romance. Is this just fantasy? Not completely. I have been published in the e-reader world through Silver and Red Rose Publishing. I was a best seller at Red Rose. Those of you with Nooks and Kindles, you can check out the publishers website or you can go to Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Just type in my name.

I found writing through Facebook. Weird, huh? I suppose not as weird as some of the things you can find through Facebook, but I digress. If you are familiar with RPGs, that's where I started. I joined group from the popular series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, The Dark Hunters. Only when I wanted to join, all the female parts were taken. I was offered Valerius Magnus and since my good friend Teri was playing his vampire hunting wife and lover, Tabitha. I gave it a shot. I became quite good if I do say so myself. I really took to it.

But rping a character written by another author only allows you to go so far with him. I mean, I was able to create and play story lines, but I was stretching him to his limits. In no way was I going to take the character created by Kenyon and do what ever I wanted with him. I have too much respect for her.

Around the same time I was reaching my limits with Val, another rping friend from another book group encouraged me to join Role Play World, a site created by aspiring writers and a published author who wanted to do more than just play a pre-written character.Reluctantly, mostly out of fear, I went and Winn Cooperman, MD was born. RPing at the site took on more of a story-telling aspect. His story started there and is still waiting for me. I pulled further away from rp as I had known it. (Sorry, T)

There at RPW I received so much support and encouragement. With the help of a particular published author, I was given the opportunity to publish a story of my own. I still don't see what they all saw in me, but here I am.

I love to write and tell stories. I hope to do more.

Self Promoting Bites the Big One

So here I am today, having an IM conversation with my good friend, who is also a newly published writer, about self promoting. We both loathe it.

Personally, I see about a 10% chance of becoming a successful author. By successful I mean having people around the globe interested in reading my stories and being able to support my family with my work. And 10% is gracious.

I started writing because I was encouraged to by some friends who believed I had talent. I got lucky and managed to get two different publishers to accept my short stories in the last year. But other submissions to alternate houses have been denied. I've been told my stuff just isn't what their readers want. The stories don't have enough character development and the plots are just too simple. And honestly, I have trouble disagreeing with them.

But yet I keep writing and something keeps driving me along to submit work.

The self promoting still sucks. Blogs, websites, twitter. Facebook is the only thing I feel connected to but really of the two hundred some friends I have on my page, how much can I really promote?

Why?

Why do I torture myself? Do I really need a blog? I have no idea what I'm doing. No clue whatsoever how to post anything. I've published three short stories and very few people even know who I am other than my friends.

Yet here I sit attempting to design a blog. I should be writing. I know how to put sentences together. Blocks of text? Color? Design?

Ridiculous.