Writers/Publishers Discount

Here's a book bargain for you professional writers and publishers. Whether your style be fiction or non, poetry or essay, chances are you do a fair amount of reseach. Google's great, but a book in the hand allows you time to read, ponder, analyze, synthesize and generally play with chunks of information to determine whether it suits your writing project.

In addition, some of us have an almost visceral obsession about owning our research books. First, I may want to do some additional fact checking later on, and secondly, we can't very well highlight and makes notes on the library copies, can we? Still, the cost of buying those research books can be daunting.

Happily, Border's offers a corporate discount rate: 20% off the price of books, 10% off periodicals. You simply fill out a short form (available at the stores), mail it in and wait for the membership card to arrive in the mail. Yes, sole proprietorships qualify.

(You say the books would probably be cheaper on Amazon to begin with? That's often true. But what's also true is that I usually don't want to wait. When I want a research book, I want it now!)

A hefty discount and instant book gratification - what a lovely combination!

Happy writing ~

Linda

Writing vs. Life

(A poem of frustration from a prose writer...)

I think
Life doesn’t listen
Very well.

Life knows full well
That I need oxygen
Water
Writing
Occasional nourishment
And more writing
In order to thrive.

But Life’s
Such a trickster,
Such a knee-slapping
Joker
A maker of hurdles
That silence my pen.

Sometimes
I think
Life doesn’t know me
Very well.

Promote my new book
So it actually sells?
Instead my heart saddens
At the health of
my child
and her child
even as we wait
for a blessed new birthing.

Then I’ve
Paperwork
Scutwork
Invoices
Taxes
Duty prevails,
Muse wilts in a corner.

Mostly
I think
Life doesn’t even notice me
Very well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May Life allow time for your happy writing ~

Linda

Post-Writing Peace

All the scrambling to meet deadlines and the 7-day work weeks it took to get The Many Faces of Journaling 2nd edition to press had become a habit. "Rush" was my normal speed, long past the time when I need to. But tonight the brush of the evening breeze on my cheek gently reminded me that my current project is finished, and it's time now to be still and hear the quiet.

... It's time now to be still ...

A short drive to the park tomorrow will deliver me to a small patch of peace, where I'll sit beneath the oak tree on a bunch of dry leaves listening to the squirrels and birds, feeling the sunshine flow over me. My heart tells me it's time to pause and relax before I jump into the next book project.

And so I shall.

This may be just the right time for you to relax, too.


Linda

"Many Faces of Journaling, 2nd ed." is Here!

It’s finally here!

The brand new 2nd edition of The Many Faces of Journaling is off the presses and in the book warehouse, ready to ship to various wholesalers, book stores, web sites, and other paying customers as the distributor receives their orders. And I have 2 cartons of the beauties right here (that’s 96 copies).


Books & Bubbly Celebration

Friday night, I’m having a small Books & Bubbly party here. It’ll be a family-type affair made up those who were especially supportive during my time writing this 2nd edition. In addition to 6-8 grown ups, two of my grandchildren (one 8-YO and one 18-month old) will be here along with another guest’s two kids. There will be much hugging and laughter.

We’ll have fizzy champagne, cold shrimp, brie & pumpernickel, veggies & dip and another cheese and cracker plate. It’s not dinner, but nobody will starve.

And I’ll give a signed copy of the book to each person I’ve invited, as my thanks to them.

I’m so excited! This kind of party is a cross between a wedding reception and a graduation party. The book is the true guest of honor, but I’ll get full credit for the birthing.

Always, always celebrate your writing accomplishments with people who have encouraged you along the way and are almost as excited as you are.

Happy writing & celebrating,

Linda

Author Blues

For the last month, I've been trudging through the standard, mild depression almost every author feels when she ships a book to the publisher or book printer. Luckily, several of the books about the writing profession warned of this, so it didn't come as a surprise. And so far, I've felt it every time I shipped a new book out.

This time, I analyzed the phenomenon more thoroughly. Initially, there's a tendency to argue with yourself, thinking What the heck's wrong with me? I should be ecstatic! Dancing on air! Celebrating." But thoughts like that don't help when you're feeling down. And I finally realized there are two very logical factors playing into this funk:

(1) Writing a book takes a long time - months, sometimes years. In that time, it becomes your constant companion. You work, eat, sleep and shower with it. And you're pouring your whole being into the work to produce the very best book possible. When you ship the manuscript off, you're saying good-bye to that dear friend, companion, work-mate. And the emotional hole it leaves in your life hurts. The sudden loss of a "loved one" always makes us feel a little bereft.

(2) The other aspect is purely physical. The last few weeks of writing involve long periods of intense work. Writing, rewriting, more tweaking, proofreading, making big corrections, then little ones, then just dithering between two equally well worded sentences. The closer we come to the finish line, the hard we push. During that time, an author gushes adrenalin. The "writer's high" is accompanied by an equally amazing surge of energy. When you ship the book, the adrenalin stops. The final period of hard work and fiendish energy leaves us exhausted, and then the adrenalin that gave us such strength vanishes on the way home from the Post Office. The combined droop makes an intelligent writer feel like a a soggy noodle, and a sad one, at that.

What's the remedy? It helps to know it's normal, and considering the above two factors, very logical. It's good to work on marketing the little gem you just worked so hard on and to begin developing plans for your next book (really!). But don't expect any of that to eradicate the Author Blues. After the first two or three sad weeks , life begins to look a little lighter each day, and eventually, depending on what other disasters befall you during that process, you'll regain your balance.

Be kind to you. Birthing a book is hard labor, and you deserve some gentle recovery time.

Happy writing ~

Linda