OMG It's Friday!

This afternoon I posted Thursday's blog...well call me a day late and a dollar short...constantly! With all the holiday commotion, construction, and calls/emails I lost track of my days.

One interesting thing of note and rather disturbing is from one of my daughters. She uses strictly cell phone service...no land lines. Last night, she received several phone calls from a person playing games and it was the same voice.

This was more than an innocent pranks of the old days...Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Well let him out.  This was vicious and down right scary. The number was blocked and it was after midnight.

The caller asked if she had a brother. My son died many years ago so she told the other person, no and she thought they had the wrong number. The next call from this blocked number asked her if she was married and had children. She hung up. The third time the caller got really nasty and threatened to kill her and her family. This time she told them in not nice terms to go play in traffic and stop calling. The fourth call that she answered the caller told her he knew where she lived and was coming to kill them.

Needless to say she woke her husband again. This time telling him to load his gun. They keep it unloaded because of their children. And they waited. This is sick people! Nobody showed up, but they were waiting. Today she called her phone service and they told her it would take SIXTY DAYS! This is even more ludicrous in my mind. She later filed a police report on the incident. Whoever it was got their jollies, but if it were me I would have told them to try...dead men can't tell stories.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Thursday Temerity & the Indie Author

te·mer·i·ty
təˈmeritē
    Excessive confidence or boldness; audacity.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." This line is from the movie the "Princess Diaries."


When you tell your friends you are self-publishing a book it is first viewed as you having the temerity or audacity of doing such an act. They know you on a level that may not be what you think of yourself. To be bold. To be confident. To have the audacity to see your work in print. It's a drive which few other than an author understands. A true friend will applaud and secretly admire your courage.


Literary agents and the NY type publishers will discount your decision as fool-hardy akin to suicide of any authorial career. Who are you to know better than them...the experienced, the gate-keepers, and key holders of what is literary?

Over the years I have watched the publishing business change from many small fishes in a big ocean to huge fishes in a small pond and the pond is getting smaller.  The pond is getting smaller with the advent of e-publishing. Each one of the huge conglomerates are pushing for elbow room. I find it interesting that they are jumping into the boat. They have finally realized in order to get to the bigger pond across the road they must comply with a new set of rules or die.


Temerity is needed by an author who is breaking into the market. While confidence levels fluctuate depending on sales and marketing efforts, the courage it takes to make the initial leap is mind boggling...sort of like my penguin friends in the picture. While an author, like me- may have a file cabinet drawer full of rejection slips from various agents and publishers over the years, we have the courage to say "no" my work is more important than the opinions of the gate-keepers. It has value. It should be read. It should be out there in the world for all.

You as the indie author have the temerity, courage, and audacity to put your neck on the chopping block. Win or lose is no matter, of course we all want to win. We are guided by the reading audience. We give the reader what they want and when they want it...which was yesterday. 


Supply and demand figures on what is available by self-published or e-published authors is an avalanche of product that there is a varying demand for. A supply glut, but times are changing. Look at it this way...you are the pioneer crossing streams and mountains to get to the promised land on the other side. The way is perilous, hard, and many times you want to give up.  

If you lack the confidence, courage, backbone, or temerity to see your work in print...then an indie author is not something you want to even consider. For me, it's an informed  choice.


Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Wednesday Willies & Winners

I was walking through my overgrown garden today. Overgrown because I haven't tilled it under yet. I ran across, or rather it ran across my foot, a southeastern legless lizard. Now anyone who knows me, knows I'm deathly afraid of snakes.

Yes, this is a lizard and upon close examination you can see the gills BUT if it looks like a snale and moves like a snake...IT IS a snake in my mind. This sucker was three feet long!

Yeah, I was doing that crazy hopping dance out of the garden. It taught me not to go into the garden without my boots again...I was in sandals. WILLLIES!!!!

On the writing front- I've gotten the names and addresses for the two winners of signed paperbacks from the Halloween blog hop. The competition was hot and furious. Congratulations to...

Julie Witt
and
Chrystal McLean

Your signed copies were posted today so you should receive them shortly. Four others won downloadable versions of "Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption" but I don't have a list of those winners. WTG All who entered.

Meanwhile I've been dealing with computer issues. One hard drive failure on my desktop and a heat sensor issue with my laptop. When I looked at the cost of a new hard drive, and a new CD-DVD drive for my desktop it honestly would be cheaper to buy a new one.  It only takes money and right now all my available cash has gone into the repairs on my home.

The laptop issue is going to be a bear. There is no fixing it according to my PC guy. The machine just runs hot even with a dual fan underneath. Once it hits 80+ degrees it shuts down. I have to wait until it cools down and then start again. The temperature gauge software shows my computer normally running at 78 degrees so time is short when it works.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

The Query Letter

Now being self-published, you've missed one of the biggest headaches next to writing the synopsis. The dreaded query letter. But for those of you who are thinking about standard publishing, I've seen a tons of blogs, videos and other resources about how to write a proper query letter to an agent. I thought I'd give you the other side. I know you'll be laughing after watching, but I'll bet there are tons of agents out there who can give you examples of things shown in this video.

BTW, this is post #46 of the 53rd day in the S.H.I.N.Eonline bloggers challenge.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

I'm Outta There!

It has reached a point in all this construction nonsense that I have to leave my house for a few days. The fumes and sounds are just wearing me out. I've stayed because this is where my husband is the most comfortable, but this is no longer the case. So tomorrow we are checking into a motel...it will definitely be warmer.

I actually pulled my wool blazer out this morning for a wedding. Fall is definitely here with shades of winter for south Georgia.

On the writing front, I'm at a standstill. I'm currently looking for a motel with WiFi and allows pets, we have two cats. Maybe I can actually get some work done. The best I've managed to do was sporatic blogs and answer followers on twitter. I did see a cute video of my next to the youngest granddaughter singing "Poker Face" on Facebook. Really cute.

So I'm outta here for a couple of days.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.