My Writer’s Journey
                                                                   by Judith Post

Before Judy begins, I'd like to highlight her upcoming romance, which is available for pre-order on Amazon and Nooks. Here's the blurb:

Nothing stirs the pot like a new man in town…

Welcome to Mill Pond and small-town country living, filled with fresh air, fresh food, and plenty of fresh gossip—especially when it comes to romance…

It’s impossible not to notice when someone new shows up in Mill Pond. Especially someone as obviously out-of-place as Ian McGregor. His stylish suit and fancy car scream “city slicker.” And when Tessa Lawrence discovers he can’t even change a tire, she has no choice but to help. That’s just what the locals do. And when she finds out Ian’s her new neighbor, of course she’s obliged to invite him to dinner too…

Turns out Ian’s come from New York to open a luxury resort on the property next door to Tessa’s farm, where she grows berries and sells her famous jams and delectable baked goods. But despite their quickly growing friendship and temptingly close proximity, Tessa plans to keep things with Ian strictly neighborly. For one thing, Ian’s got a fiancée who, unlike Tessa, doesn’t have dirt under her nails. Plus, Tessa knows from bitter experience that a guy this gorgeous is all too likely to break a simple country girl’s heart. Even if he’s as sweet as one of her cinnamon buns—and equally hard to resist…

​                               ****************************

Promises to be an awesome read! I've pre-ordered my copy!
And now, here's Judy...

I started writing after I had my second daughter. I was knee deep in diapers and short on sleep. My husband wanted to give me a break once a week and enrolled me in a continuing education class he thought I’d like: Writing for Fun and Profit. I’d never dreamt about being a writer, but I took a lot of English literature in college, so writing essays and short stories was fun for me. Back then, I didn’t even think of writing as a hobby, just a diversion.

After my second session of classes, one of my fellow class members invited me to join her writers’ club: Summit City Scribes. A core of serious writers faithfully attended it, but over the years, some had to drop out, and others got discouraged.  I was lucky.  Every time I started to lose faith that I’d ever be good enough, something small would happen to keep me going.  Mystery Time magazine paid me in copies for two of my stories.  I had stories in three WomanSleuth anthologies and then got stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s magazine and then Ellery Queen’s.  Somewhere in there, I started trying my hand at novels.  And mysteries seemed the natural way to go.
 
What I learned by writing mysteries:  First, writing novels was harder for me than writing short stories.  But with mysteries, I learned to start with a hook.  In her early books, Martha Grimes always began her novels with a short, quick scene, showing the killer’s first victim.  Then she’d take a step back to introduce her detective, setting, and minor characters.  I read most or all of Agatha Christie’s mysteries, and mysteries are naturals for plotting.  The book’s big question smacks you in the face when the first body hits the floor.  I wrote cozies when cozies weren’t popular.  And I learned from that, too.  I got lots and lots of rejection letters from editors, saying that they loved my writing, but NO ONE was buying cozies at that time.  Did I change to something else?  Not me.  I truly believed that if I wrote the BEST cozy, someone would buy it.  Not so.  And that’s when I learned about marketing.  When the genre you love is in a slump, find another genre.
 
I finally wrote an offbeat, strange mystery and sent it to an editor at Tor.  She promptly wrote back that she loved the mystery, but could never buy it.  It was too unusual.  Another lesson.  Don’t write too far out of the box.  Editors want work that’s original, but not too different.  Then she asked, did I have any urban fantasy?  She was looking for that.  “What is urban fantasy?” I wrote back.  She sent me a checklist, and I tried to write it.  My next life lesson.  When you haven’t read enough of a genre, you’re going to screw it up.  She gave me great feedback on my first attempt, and I tried again.  This time, she wanted to buy it, took it to a sales meeting, but was told that the sales team had just promoted a book that used Tarot cards as the story’s hinge, and they couldn’t do another one.  Another lesson.  Rejections aren’t always about your writing. You can be rejected because the editor just bought a book about a serial killer and she doesn’t need another one.  Or she has Nora Roberts as a client and focuses all of her energy on marketing her books.  Or she hates snakes and you put a boa in your story.  Or she spilled coffee on your manuscript, and she’s in a bad mood.  Yes, editors and agents are people.  They have biases, good days and bad days.   Anyway, by the time I wrote a third novel for my editor, she’d changed jobs and wasn’t with Tor any more, and the new editor liked epic fantasy, not urban fantasy.  Publishing changes.

By the time I found an agent who liked my urban fantasy, the field was glutted.  Publishing trends come and go.  Timing matters.  There’s a window of opportunity, and when it closes, move on.

I still love writing urban fantasy, but my agent told me the sorry news.  “Try romance.”  So I did.  And I got a three, e-book deal with Kensington.  COOKING UP TROUBLE comes out April 12, 2016.  And guess what?  I really enjoy writing romance, too.  Urban fantasy focuses on action, battles.  Romance focuses on relationships and emotions.  They balance each other out.

What have I learned?  Write what you love.  But be smart about markets.  And keep growing as a writer.  There are lots of good writers out there.  You’re not competing against the bad and mediocre.  You’re competing against the good or awesome. 

Thanks, Sue, for inviting me to be a guest on your blog!!

And thanks, Judy, for your awesome post!

Want to connect with this awesome writer? You can find her here:

Judy's webpage:  http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/
Judy's author’s facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/JudithPostsurbanfantasy/
Twitter:  @judypost
 
Cheers!
​Sue 

       ​              The One Million Project:
              What We’re All About.
 
Hi everyone,
 
Sue asked me to write something about the soon to launch One Million Project, specially for her website. I think I’ll start with something about Susan Bahr herself (which she definitely didn‘t ask me to write. I hope I‘m not embarrassing you Sue!).
 
In my opinion Sue is extremely talented as both a writer and artist, and as I’m sure regular visitors to this site know already, she is a warm and friendly person as well, one whom it’s a delight to work with on a collaborative, creative project.
 
Sue is doing promotional artwork for Sarah Wilson’s mythological fable THE PERFECT TREE, which incidentally is a great story for adults and children - I think it would work wonderfully as a Pixar style movie. Sue can tell you more specifically but what she is basically doing is taking characters and scenes from the story and following her own artistic inspiration - the first piece of art is rendered in the form of a cover - not an actual cover because TPT is just one of 24 amazing stories in the collection, but stylistically each story will have their own ‘cover’ as separate promotional art.
 
As I’m sure you’re aware, Sue is a brilliant artist but she also writes. I very much hope that if we are successful enough to do a follow up collection, HODGE PODGE LANE by Susan Bahr will be a big part of it. A wonderful story by a great lady and I’ve seen the accompanying art which is to Sue’s usual high standards of creativity. In my eyes this is an illustrated story for children that can match anything on the market and one day it will. J
 
Now to the actual OMP itself - well it originated from two separate ideas.
 
The first was that, after writing several novels from 2010 to 2013 I wanted to write a collection of short stories. I settled on the number of 20 but felt it would take me ages to do them all. Therefore, I decided I would invite ten other writers to write a story apiece and I would do ten. It occurred to me that we could promote each other as a collective.
 
Around the same time in 2012, 2013, I was reading numerous articles about the homeless, watching television documentaries and wishing I could do something to help. I was also working in Pupil Referral Units as a supply teacher and interacting with children who had emotional and behavioural issues. Some of these children ended up being excluded from mainstream schools because of traumatic family backgrounds, neglectful parents and other things that they weren’t emotionally prepared to deal with. Although my role meant I was in and out of various PRU’s, I tried to encourage, help and make a difference, even if it meant just listening to children with sympathy.
 
My experiences and what I read and watched really made me want to give something back and help in a deeper way, but I was at a loss as to how I could achieve this. Then it clicked - I could meld my collection idea with my desire to give something back, and the OMP was born.
 
Between 2013 and today, I recruited writers and then artists like Sue for promotional art and gave thought to strategies of how to make this a global brand so we could continue to raise money even after the initial collection.
 
I added Cancer Research to make up a third charity to raise money for. My reasons for wanting to help children and the homeless, I stated above. For Cancer Research it was more personal as my mother was a cancer survivor, now thankfully many years in remission.
 
So that’s the story of the ONE MILLION PROJECT. We are all ordinary people - writers, artists, promoters - almost 30 in the network that’s been built.  We’re not a slick publishing or corporate entity and not perfect, but I’m very proud of what we’ve put together and the kind, caring people who have given their skills and time for free to build the project. The OMP relies on help and word of mouth from others to spread our recognizable logo and message.
 
The collection is over 620 pages of print and is available in paperback and ebook version.
 
You can buy it or if you’re an Amazon Prime member, borrow for free - we still receive money from Amazon per page read so if you borrow, please read every page and tell all your friends so we can achieve our targets.
 
Thank you very much. 
Jason Greenfield

And thank you, Jason, for the wonderful shout out! If you'd like to purchase this wonderful book, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/neluwa3

Cheers to all of you!
Sue
 

image credit: Pixabay.com

I'm so excited to welcome another guest blogger to my site! I asked a fellow author, Julie Holmes, if she could share her writer's process and yay her for putting this together in the midst of NaNo craziness, holiday busyness and, well, life!
 
So, without further ado, allow me to introduce the super awesome Julie Holmes...

                                                                *******

 
Julie Holmes, pen name J. M. Goebel, has been writing fiction since elementary school. A NaNoWriMo participant/winner for the past decade, she's been published in small press magazines such as "Fighting Chance" and "The Galactic Citizen", and won the 2014 Critique My Novel contest with her police procedural. Her novels fall into the adult genres of mystery, contemporary fantasy, and epic fantasy. As yet unpublished in the noveling realm, Julie is busy trying to garner agent representation for a police procedural with extrasensory elements, as well as a contemporary fantasy. A technical writer by trade, Julie shares a small hobby farm with her husband, two teen aged children, two dogs, two cats, and nine chickens, and wages a war for garden territory each summer against rabbits, chipmunks, and weeds.
 
Sue asked me to share my writing process. Right now, I’m working on a deep revision of a romantic mystery. Normally, I’d be writing up a storm of fresh stuff for NaNoWriMo this November, but I did a personal NaNoWriMo this past February. And yes, I hit 50k words in 28 days. After a decade of NaNoWriMos, I’ve got a system that works for me, at least for now. That sort of thing evolves, I think, as a writer gains experience and learns of new or different techniques.
 
A month or so before NaNo kicks off, I start brainstorming. Karen Wiesner, author of a number of romance novels, wrote Writing a Book in 30 Days, in which she shares the comprehensive method she uses for her own writing. In the back of the book, she includes a number of worksheets that walk through everything from character development to setting to story arc and timelines. Basically, the worksheets cover all the usual suspects when it comes to putting a story together.
 
I replicated the worksheets in Microsoft OneNote, so I could keep everything together and add new sheets when necessary. I could’ve used Excel, but OneNote works great for me. I spend the month before NaNo filling out character sheets, free-writing a summary, doing preliminary research, and checking story points. During the actual writing for NaNo, the worksheets come in very handy to keep things straight. I don’t consider the outline a rigid structure, though. The story evolves, the characters may change, and I make those tweaks in OneNote when I make them in the first draft.
 
Fast-forward to the end of the NaNo marathon--whew! I send the really rough and ugly draft on vacation for a few weeks and let the story ferment a bit. Then, I go back and revise, rinse, and repeat until I’ve got something nice and shiny to send to my writing group and CPs. Then the revision process starts again. After a revision or so, the first 20 pages of my current WIP went on a journey to my writing group. They shared their insight and suggestions at our annual reunion.
 
The great thing about good writing groups (and I have an awesome one!): we each have our own strengths. High-stakes plots are not always one of mine, but I got some much-needed help from my group. They helped me revise the storyline and crank up the stakes for the main character. Hence, major story adjustments. The changes they suggested are just what the story needed to take it to the next level.
 
I’m working on a deep revision now that takes major detours from the original story. Sometimes, as I’m working through new scenes, I wonder if it would be easier to just chuck it all and start over. Then I read a particularly well-written section, and decide I need to keep the good stuff. I’ve never done a revision this extensive, so to keep track of the new storyline, I chose to use a modified version of a timeline worksheet from Wiesner’s book for the initial rewrite, with columns for day, setting, character POV, and action/facts. I created the sheet in Excel, and printed out a bunch of sheets to use.

                                     image credit: Julie Holmes

I work through the timeline manually, because I think writing by hand helps the creative process. I walk through each scene, listing day, setting, POV, and a brief summary of what should happen in that scene. This way, I can track how often each character gets a turn in POV (I write in limited third POV), and get a good sense of how the story will play out. Then comes the hard work. Once I’m okay with the timeline scenes, I can work through the draft. Once my draft is revised initially to follow the new storyline, I can start the additional revisions that focus more on the granular stuff, like sentence structure, chapter goals, foreshadowing, character motivations, and so on.
 
My plan, once I’ve got the deep revision and a few polishing runs finished, is to ship the story off to my writing group for feedback. When it comes to feedback, the main thing I try to remember is this: writing is subjective, but if more than one or two people mention the same thing, that thing needs attention. Sometimes, if I’m not sure the suggestions are valid, I’ll find another set of eyes or two for a gut-check. That’s the importance of having a writing group, but also of having critique partners outside your writing group. Another suggestion is to make sure your critique partners read and/or write in the same genre you do. There’s nothing quite like reading a YA romance writer’s critique of your adult urban fantasy novel.
 
Once I’ve got something I feel is worthy, I’ll send it to a few beta readers for feedback from the reader’s side of the fence. More polishing, then a deep breath and rally of hope before sending my baby into the world of agents. Then back to the revision board for the next project to polish.
 
Thank you, Julie for sharing your process on drafting and deep revision! I truly appreciate learning more about another writer's journey.
 
If you’d like to read an excerpt of Julie's police procedural (and it's a wonderful, fast-paced, action-packed read!!), here’s the link:  http://critiquemynovel.com/2014_contest_winners/excerpts
 
You can find Julie here:
her blog: http://facetsofamuse.wordpress.com
on Twitter: @jmgoebel2k13

Cheers to all of you!
​Sue

image credit: pixabay.com

Kim, a blog book reviewer over at www.cadburypom.wordpress.com has awesomely agreed to share her thoughts and answer some questions with you, the writer, in mind. I'm so excited to have her on my site! Please help me welcome her!

*********

So, before I give you some questions, I'd like to introduce you, Kim. Can you start with some of your interests? Your background? Things like how long you've been reviewing books and what got you started?

I was a children's librarian for twenty-six years before poor health forced me to retire early. One of the things I really missed was discussing books. I was still writing reviews for my library's blog, but there was still something missing. Then last summer, I stumbled across Wordpress and knew this online community was for me.

Why do you review books and what genres are your favorite?

I review books because they're a passion/obsession of mine. What I love about being part of Wordpress is that not only do I get to post reviews about books I've loved (or in rare cases, hated), but I've met such wonderful people around the world who also share my interests. I read books in just about every genre, but my favorites are: High Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal Romance, Mystery, Suspense, and Historical Fiction. I also read a lot of YA fiction which I think my blog reflects. This goes back to my days of giving book talks and hosting book clubs for kids at the library where I worked.

Id' like to hear about the books you review. I see they are "e-Arcs" from NetGalley, Can you tell us more about this site? Do you review only self-published books, or are they're traditionally published books in this mix?

The majority of books I review are e-Arcs from Netgalley which I blame on my utter lack of self-control in requesting books! For anyone who isn't familiar with NetGalley or it's counterpart Edelweiss, these are places where bloggers, booksellers, and librarians can request e-Arcs from participating publishers in return for reviewing them on those sites as well as their blogs, Goodreads, Amazon, etc. This is a great opportunity to preview books, and they offer a wide variety from indie publishers as well as major ones like Disney, St. Martins, Simon & Schuster, and Doubleday.

What makes you enjoy a book, and what makes it fall flat? Details! We writers want to know!

What makes a book a success for me is if it has characters that I like and become emotionally invested in. If there isn't at least one character who I become attached to, then I usually find myself struggling to finish the book. There also has to be a "hook", something or someone that immediately grabs you and leaves you wanting more.

If you could choose between a book with a strong protagonist or one with a detailed, intricate plot, which would you choose? Why?

If I had to choose between a book with a strong protagonist or one with a detailed, intricate plot, I'd definitely choose the strong protagonist. In my experience, if you don't like any of the characters, then how can you care what happens to them no matter how good the world-building is?

Got a favorite book? (no, you can't use Harry Potter. Sorry! Too easy!) One from the books you've reviewed. I'm curious to know why it lingered. What made it special?

Oh gosh. A favorite book? And Sue has said I can't use Harry Potter! In that case I'm actually going to list two; a classic, as well as a new book I read this year. One of my fondest childhood memories is of my father and I reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I was ten-years-old. I was instantly captivated by Lucy Pevensie and her brothers and sister. We went on to read the entire series over the course of one summer, and it's something I'll always treasure. I think it's what started my love of fantasy in all its forms. This year has ushered in some pretty impressive debuts and although it's difficult to choose there's one in particular that keeps popping up in my mind: Simon vs the Homo Sapien's Agenda, by Becky Albertalli. It's an adorable, YA novel about a teenager coming to terms with his own sexuality and how it will affect his family and friends. Simon is a sweet, funny character who you immediately are drawn to, and the story is incredibly well-written and includes touching emails between Simon and the mysterious "Blue" who is having difficulty accepting his own sexuality and because of this is fearful of meeting in person. It's one of those books that adults will love as much as teens. With all the recent success of YA books being turned into movies like John Green's The Fault in My Stars, I'm hoping Simon also gets picked up by Hollywood. I already have my dream cast in mind!

In your opinion, do you feel e-books keep your attention as well as a printed copy? Do you feel e-books (assuming they're self-published) in general are as well crafted as a book that's gone through a traditional publishing process?


I've had mixed results regarding e-books vs print books. I have a Kindle which I love, but I still buy and borrow "regular books". At any given time I'm reading one ebook and one traditional book. While I don't know what I'd do without my Kindle, there's just something about reading a print book that in my opinion no e-reader can possibly capture. The smell, the sound and feel of the pages beneath your fingers... It's all part of what makes reading such a wonderful experience. One of the things I do love about ebooks are some of the self-published books, or books made available by smaller, independent publishing houses. I just finished one by Tamara Lowery called Blood Curse, which sets vampirates and other paranormal and mythological creatures in 1700s Caribbean, and was instantly hooked! Tamara was kind enough to send me the three others she's written so far in the Waves of Darkness series and I'm hoping to take a break soon from my NetGalley obligations so I can dive back into them. There's another book/ author I've fallen in love with which began on Wattpad and was only recently picked up by Skyscape. It's called The Casquette Girls, by Alys Arden, and it's a beautifully detailed and compelling read. One more example I'd like to mention is Jonathan Ferrara whose books are published by Dragonwell Publishing. He's written two amazing paranormal novels for middle-school and YA readers - Elijah Dart: Angel of Death, and The Blackwell Family Secrets: The Guardians of Sin. They're both going to be series so I'm looking forward to seeing where Jonathan takes his characters next. These books are prime examples of the benefits of having an e-reader. Without one I never would have "met" these amazing authors and read their work.

We all have them, pet peeves. What are yours?


As an avid reader I definitely have a few pet peeves. These include: unlikable protagonists, cases of the dreaded "insta-love", and unsatisfying endings. I don't mind cliffhangers per se as long as they're well written, and they don't make me feel as though I were being manipulated.

Any sage words of advice to share with writers?

Hmm. Sage advice for fellow writers. Given that I've been suffering from writer's block since March, I'm not sure if I'm in a good position to offer any words of wisdom. I will say write about what you know and love what you write. If you enjoy it and it's something you would pick out to read for yourself, then I believe others will like it as well. If you do suffer a bout of writers block, don't force it. One thing I've been trying is free writing, where you sit down and write everything you can about your topic for ten minutes. If other things pop into your head, write those down as well. Since I started doing this recently I've found it helps untangle my muddled thoughts, and I've been able to actually start on the second draft of my book. Writing should never be work, rather it should be something that you can't wait to return to. Try not to get bogged down with thoughts of sending your creation off to publishers and the long road ahead. Just find your ideal writing space wherever that is and let your creative juices flow.

Thank you to Sue for inviting me to guest post on her wonderful blog!

And thank you, Kim, for sharing such wonderful insights!

Happy writing!
Sue

image credit: pixabay.com

We all need help when we get stuck. A hand up. A gesture of good will, a simple act of kindness can go a long way.

I've been fortunate on this writers' journey in finding such amazing, wonderful people, all willing to share their knowledge and experience. I'm grateful. I know I wouldn't be this far along without their sage wisdom and words of support.

So, starting this Monday, and continuing monthly, I'm hosting guest bloggers, writers, book reviewers and editors, or sharing links to writing contests in the hopes you'll find a nugget- something that supports you and keeps you writing.

Because we need it sometimes. Help to continue on.

​Happy writing...

Sue