I was just chatting with my writing buddy in Scotland about pushing on despite the relentless Imposter Syndrome and this popped up in my inbox. I love synchronicity. Enjoy a little boost to quell that inner editor. And remember writing is all about the joy.
I enjoy the blogs from Writers Write immensely. When the one below popped up today, I totally related. Do you find yourself swooning over morally grey antagonists, those nasty villains with a vulnerable side and a broody brow? Do you secretly hope they will win in the end?
Writing the antagonist is probably more fun than writing the hero. Hmmm. I think that’s a confession that will prompt more soul-searching. Well, at least I can accept that it’s all part of the learning process as I continue this writing journey. And whew! I’m thankful for these blogs assuring me that I’m not the first writer to struggle with dreaming up steamy scenes with the antagonists more often than the heroes.
These blogs gave me more clarity. Heroes and antagonists are not all black and white. They are the perfect blend of both with one topping the other only after they take all those twists and turns in their destiny, and it’s what they do with that heady mixture of imperfection that makes the story.
This means my heroes can be a bit of both good and bad, so I don’t have to struggle with choosing which one to fall in love with. Wait… I still need a villain. Sigh… I’ll keep working on it. That’s the joy of being a writer.
After reading this blog, I searched for more. Enjoy these great insights into loving your antagonist.
Fall means writing. That’s a funny thing to say since every day means writing to me-and every day I write. But everything is better in the fall. I love this season the best for feeling rejuvenated, hopeful, grateful, and just plain happy. It could be the cooler weather, the smell in the air, the colors, a new year approaching, or the perfect time to reflect on the past year. I just know I love it.
I have another reason to be grateful this year. I get to enjoy fall as a full-time writer and a retired public employee. This time last year, I would never have believed that to be possible. What a difference a year makes-and taking that leap of faith.
As for the writing… Seems like fall is the season for that too. There are so many events. I’ve got three anthologies to submit; one in September, October, and November. I actually submitted September’s this weekend. I’ll get word after the 1st if it’s accepted… Nail-biting time…
I’ve got a Writing Battle contest (you can meet the creators on my Spotlight) coming up at the end of October, and November is NaNoWriMo, which is slated for banging out a new novel that has a deadline for the middle of next year. I don’t like deadlines, but I’m going to ride this happy train into winter and see what I can accomplish. The plot is done, and the characters are stacking up. I’m writing it as part of an indie writers romance group, which I’m hoping will be a lot of fun.
My spotlight interviews are also booked out through December. I keep trying to scale it back, but it’s a growing thing that’s taking on a life of its own… and… drumroll, please…
The latest guest to accept my spotlight invitation is a USA Today bestselling author!!
I’m a huge fan and was thrilled when Grace Draven responded to my invitation just this week. She will be chatting with me in December. If you are looking for immersive epic fantasy fall reading, check out her novels. Her romance is beyond fantastic and it’s set in high fantasy worlds that will sweep you away. The audio versions are amazing. I guarantee it.
Happy writing, stay cozy, safe, and healthy, and enjoy your fall!
I spend an exorbitant amount of time on Canva crafting video promos and posts for social media because… Well… it’s fun. I love creating art as much a written story and this is the perfect way to engage in both passions. So, I keep trying out new designs and methods to convey my stories and characters. The problem is there are so many combinations of elements, taglines, imagery, arrangement, music, length of time… You get the idea. Also, I may not be up on the trendy stuff as much as I need to be. I like what I like (including music like rock and blues, not pop) and not necessarily what I’m told to like. Hmmm.
So, hitting on a formula that will grab attention and tap into those algorithms is exorbitantly difficult.
Exorbitant = exceeding the bounds of custom, propriety, or reason, especially in amount or extent; highly excessive
Dictionary.com
The most fascinating aspect I’ve discovered is how the same video will get completely different engagement between social media platforms. There’s never any rhyme or reason. It will soar on TikTok (Disclaimer-soar for me means topping out at 700 views) and flop on Instagram or vice versa. Facebook? Forget it. I’m invisible there. Same on Tumblr. On occasion it might do well on Twitter… I mean X (what is that? – talk about invisible… and uninviting).
Here are some of my attempts just today. I would love your opinion about spending our time creating post after post in the seemingly futile game of hitting the right formula. And thank you for supporting my creative efforts and highly excessive passions.
The collage template
The flash of Wow😍
The evocative draw
If you’d like a story with a loveable heroine, smashing alpha males, found family, otherworldly friends, adventure, a cozy mountain town, a lively roadhouse, and princes from an ancient race who are trying to kill the MC’s date, pick up a copy of Ursus Borealis. My stories are full of exorbitant passions as well. 😉
My Pod People and I have been working super hard on a finish for The Starlight Chronicles series. And it’s getting hot in my office with no air conditioning. Our window units don’t reach that far. How are all of you faring in this hot weather? Yikes!
So, I was stoked when my bestie asked me to stay with her a couple nights at her timeshare at South Lake. But my energetic and fun-loving friend doesn’t just stop with an invite to stay in a charming little condo… Nope, she also provided a list of excursions for us to indulge in.
Which meant I packed up my pod people and left my laptop behind… Well, not quite. But I only wrote for about twenty minutes on Book Three when I had some downtime 😁 Oh, and I made a promo video for another writing buddy who will be sharing it on their YouTube channel because I thought it would be fun to film it at Tahoe since there’s a great scene in Ursus Borealis at Harrah’s… and a chase scene on the highway to Truckee… But that’s it for writing, I swear. Oh wait. I also bent my friend’s ear on my latest plots. She’s wonderful about that too, including injecting me with a needed dose of her vibrant enthusiasm. She likes my books and is great for bouncing ideas off of.
I only live 45 minutes from this world-class destination and visit once or twice a year, but I’ve never gone up to a ski lodge. Mostly because I don’t ski. Who knew Heavenly could be as fun in the summer! And it was blessedly much cooler than my valley this past week.
Here is a bit of trivia: The amount of water in Lake Tahoe (39 trillion gallons) is enough to supply each person in the US with 50 gallons of water per day for five years.
View from the Heavenly Gondola. I highly recommend this experience. It includes a final leg on the ski lift to the top at 10,000 feet! I live in a high dessert valley at 5,000 feet, but still! It’s great getting high on that pine scented air that only smells that sweet so far up. And there was plenty of snow left over in July.
I’ve never gazed on Tahoe like this. Isn’t it amazing?
view of the Carson Valley, Nevada-side
From the top of Heavenly, you can ski down the Nevada side or the California side.
The other highlight of our outing was a Magic Fusion show at The Loft in Heavenly Village. (The Village is also good for fantastic restaurants and shops.)
The Loft is a small venue, purposefully intimate, so the audience can be up close and personal with the performer. Our evening included an amazing performance by Matt Marcy.
For your entertainment, here is Mr. Marcy on Penn and Teller.
We finished the trip with pizza at the Base Camp Pizza Co. with live music.
Empress Linen with Indigo Gin, Elderflower liqueuer, lemonade, and cucumber
Okay, so back to my hot valley and writing… after a little knitting and pot luck at my local air conditioned hangout with my knitting buddies!
I’m a romance writer. Passion is an emotion I get to play around with… a lot. Sigh…
Okay, that statement pretty much says it all, and I should just end my article here. Wait… sorry… I got caught up in the moment. I do that a lot when I’m writing.
What I really wanted to talk about was how I found my own personal passion that 1) blossomed in my 50s, 2) is sticking with me, unlike so many other creative outlets I’ve explored, and 3) has been a joy fanning into a brighter flame through learning and community… And through my example, prove to you that you can do the same.
You get one shot at life and there’s no age limit in pursuing your passion – if anything, you now have the wisdom and experience to navigate your passions with a clear head. Besides; it’s better late than never!
My focus today is the part where I started this journey in my 50s. Because I want to convey to you that it’s never too late to pursue a new passion, to rewrite your life, even. It can happen. Sometimes it happens with purpose, sometimes by those lovely twists of fate. The twist of fate that caused me to take another turn in life was not so lovely, but the fact that the pandemic brought an activity that prompted me to try my hand at my first novel is a positive thing I will gladly take away from all that horror.
The summer it hit, I decided to get back into my reading. My wonderful niece turned me onto Cassandra Clare, and I devoured the Infernal Devices series starting with Clockwork Angel. After that, I went on to consume Stephanie Meyers’ TwilightSeries. I couldn’t get enough of the fantastic first person narrative of Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood. I’m getting ready to start them again on my Audible. I went on to discover independent authors like Stephanie Hudson and devoured all twelve books in the Afterlife saga, followed by Transfusion. Next, was another fantastic discovery; Grace Draven and Radiance. Highly recommend this author! More authors got swept into my Audible or Kindle like Laura Thalassa (The Four Horsemen novels, The Bargainer series, and other great series), Jeanienne Frost (Night Huntress novels), and Kresley Cole (Immortals After Dark novels). For the romcom paranormal shifter delights, I turned to Carrie Pulkinen. And the list goes on. I read 180 books that summer.
All devoured, digested, and churned into a new passion.
Which means I got the crazy idea one day (in 2020) that I would try my hand at writing a novel. I sat down to write… and haven’t stopped. My first novel turned into a 250,000 word series. I’m still finishing the last book, and have rewritten the first two several times in the process of learning. I went for the self-publishing option and learned how to make my own book covers and promos, all one step at a time. I got involved with a writing community and found other resources. Three years later, I’ve learned so many new things, my head is spinning, and I made the momentous decision to retire from my day job a year early.
I ‘m also 50,000 words in on three other stand alone novels and have written a host of short stories (many based on characters in my novels yet to be complete), one having won a contest. But wow! Contests and anthology submissions are tough. Still I’ve learned so much through the process, that it’s worth the beating. I blogged about the benefits of slogging through rejection yesterday. I did managed to get a short story accepted to an anthology this year, and that was a thrill.
Am I convincing you yet to go for it? I hope so. All I can tell you for sure… following a passion at any stage of life is the best way to live. Strong and barely controllable emotions fuel the mind and body, spark that drive to get up and start a new day, and to live that day in excited anticipation of the next development while meeting yet another milestone in your new passion.
Here is one great example to illustrate that developing a passion later in life is not a new thing. [Click on header for the full article on other examples]
Author of the autobiographical “Little House on the Prairie” series, Laura Ingalls Wilder became a teacher at the tender age of 15, but spent most of her adult life tending a farm and family. She wouldn’t really take up writing until her 40s, and faced several rounds of rejections for her first attempts at chronicling her childhood on the frontier. She finally broke through with “Little House in the Big Woods” in 1932, when she was well into her 60s. She continued to write “Little House” books for the next decade.
Just think – you could spend the next few years indulging your passions, or you could tell yourself it’s not worth it. Those next few years will pass regardless, only by then, you may regret not giving your passions a go.
This was my week for the dreaded “R” word. Rejected twice in seven days. I thought I’d chat about about how that makes me feel and what I’ll be doing about it. Maybe you all can relate and it will give you a boost to know that you’re not alone.
People who experienced rejection as more painful were more likely to change their behavior, remain in the tribe, and pass along their genes.
I’ll start by saying that this whole fiction writing journey has been a complete surprise and only started three years ago. I’ve been a steamroller ever since. That is the most surprising part because most of my life I’ve been a dabbler. I love to create, but I’ve never stuck with any one thing long enough to become expert.
I’m now a bulldog about a craft I’ve developed a surprising passion for… in my 50s. What? How did that happen? I’ll get it into the idea of late-blooming passions more in a future article. Today, I’m focusing on dealing with rejection.
So, when the results go unseen, unappreciated, or are outright rejected, the feelings go deep, right to the gut. Maybe that was why I always dabbled. No risk. Well, I’m opening myself up to all the poundings now… and having the time of my life.
Both of these rejections I’d prepared myself for and even planned my next steps. Doing this I was sure would help me cope with the blow. It does, and it doesn’t, and I’ll tell you why.
First. It was still a gut punch.
This TED article provides the reasons why we feel rejection so deeply. So, I’ll point you to it because you really need to read it and it explains things much better than I can.
As for me, I really thought that I wouldn’t feel rejection as deeply in my 50s, convinced life experience, maturity, whatever you want to call it, would be my buffer. Instead, my first reaction when I get that “Thank you for your submission to… Unfortunately…” message is to cry and rant.
Then my jaw juts out and my backup plans kick into action. But the plans don’t go forward in a vacuum. Each rejection is a major learning experience. I love to learn, and I love to apply it to my work. It proves just as Mr. Winch describes in his article, that pain equals survival. It’s motivation. It changes behavior. And leads to success. Just be open to the idea that success comes in all sorts of ways each time you push through another rejection.
So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that the pain is short-lived. I waist little time before turning back into a steamroller, and I can move on with honing my craft. And that’s why I’m enjoying the heck out of this ride.
Catching up in my planner/journal today and thought I’d see how everyone is doing halfway through the year. Are you on track with your writing goals? Taking time off? Enjoying some unusually cool weather like I me?
I have to admit, the first half has been a blur, and I don’t see things slowing down, though the pace is so much different now that I’m no longer stuck in the 7:00 – 5:30 4-10 routine (sorry, just can’t relegate my previous work schedule to a mere 9 to 5 😊).
Don’t you love these stickers? I’m a sticker fiend. But I don’t buy them like I used to. Instead, I’m trying to use them up. No more room in the studio for hoarding. Still, I can’t bring myself to stick my sassy collection on anything for fear of leaving them behind. They’re from a favorite Etsy sticker shop, Shine Sticker Studios.
I have managed to complete some significant goals before July, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next six months.
As for the goals met, I have to plug them in here… I’m just so danged excited…
1) A relaunch of Book One in The Starlight Chronicles, Ursus Borealis with a new cover and bonus chapters.
2) A completed 15,000 word short story ready for submission, involving a favorite character from my series, Mortas, a vampire emissary, so old he doesn’t remember how he came into existence. That doesn’t mean he’s a relic, though he must act as one to save a young girl from being sacrificed. If Dragon Soul Press decides not to take it on, I’ve got more planned for my vampire, so stay tuned.
Andras JohnsRelaunchMortas
Free All of July!
Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale!
To widen the reach a bit more, I’ll be offering my books for free on Amazon the first week of July as well.
Well, back to working on my Sunday’s Spotlight with writer J. V. Hilliard! For more great conversations on a writer’s life, check out my Galleries!
By D. L. Lewellyn 