One Thing That Will Kill Your Writing Career

Jealousy.

Yep. I could just leave my post at that. However, let me explain.

One of the first things were taught in Martial Arts both when sparing and practicing is to keep your hands loose.

Why? What is one of the first things we do or describe a character do when we or they experience negative emotion? Clench our/their hands.

What does it do to us? It focuses the negative emotion into something physical. It makes it manifest. In a sparing situation it wears you out. You're wasting energy you could be using to defend yourself.

Jealousy can do the same thing to writers mentally in regards of writing and their writing career. It takes a lot of negative mental energy to be jealous. It can dominate thoughts and make people unbearably miserable. Let alone not a pleasant person to be around.

Instead of writing, a jealous person stalks other peoples websites, Facebook profiles, and Amazon pages and staring at numbers, statuses, and pictures that will do nothing but make them more miserable. They compare themselves to other people that either have had that lucky break or have spent the thousands of hours and written the millions of words to earn their success. In that negative world they are living in, they don't see that they could be the same if they weren't so busy being green. They let those little doubts that could normally be kicked to the curb become insurmountable walls and they have defeated themselves.

I'll be the first to admit that when a friend or acquaintance gets a six figure deal or signs with an amazing agent or publisher or has a massively successful signing or launch I feel a little green. Hey, I'm human. It's what I let it do to me after those initial moments that matters the most.

I let it go. Often times I sit my butt in my chair and open a document and stele my resolve to write something better. Something amazing. Or make new and more ambitious goals, or submit to that agent I was a little timid about approaching.

We have a choice.

Let something like jealousy kill our potential. Or let it motivate us to make us better.

What is yours?

What inspires you?

I am a music fan. I write, play and clean to my music. I do not claim to be trendy. I'm not. I have stuff new and old that I like to listen to. Lately I've been on a older Finger 11 kick. That said I'll hear a certain song and whether it reminds me of a character, scene or story depends on a lot of things. I thought it would be fun to link and talk about certain songs and why they resonate with me.

So today I'm talking about Emergence and a certain song by Onerepublic

It's called Something's Gotta Give



Why does this remind me of Emergence?

The line talking about "staying up all night listening to records that we like". It reminds me of the scenes where Antony and Elite would dance to music from his old record collection. This song is instant stress relief for me. It makes me smile thinking of Antony and Elite enjoying music together.

Helping Write Blurbs

I love to pay it forward. I owe a lot of good Karma to people out there who helped me make it to the realm of published author. Way too many to list although I try occasionally to do that.

When people ask for help I usually jump at the chance to crit something or help promote. Sometimes if asked to read a whole book and crit it I have to pass, I only have so much time in my day and most of that is spent putting out destructo boy fires.

When Maria asked for help with her back cover copy I jumped at the chance. Not only just to help, but also to help feed my muse who loves it when I delve into someone else's story. He loves to start plying in my writing worlds while my analytical brain is in someone else's.

Maria was so excited to get her new 25 word promo and her back cover copy blurb revamped she blogged about me and my new business. You can see it here. Maria's Random Thoughts

And here is my new business: Metamorphosis Author Services

Mercedes Madness

I've interviewed her before and she's one amazing person.

I had the pleasure of spending a few days with her in Mesquite last December. She grew up in the town where I now live. She is quirky, sweet and deliciously deviant all rolled into one dark-haired, tall, whimsical horror writer.

In addition to her short story compilation Beautiful Sorrows out last fall she has two new projects that I can't wait to get my hands on. As well as being nominated for a Brahm Stoker Award which is HUGE, and being awarded four Honorable Mentions by Ellen Daltow, which is also huge!

Okay so back to her Projects.

She was asked to write a story about Jack the Ripper for an anthology. Called Tales of Jack the Ripper

Go on. Go take a look you wont be disappointed.




The second is her first novella called Apocalyptic Montessa and Neuclear Lulu a tale of atomic love. you can find more about this tale at Ragnarok Publications facebook page.

I'm in the Tank!

Authors Think Tank that is.

I had the extremely enjoyable opportunity in May to sit down with the creators of the Tank and do a podcast for them. We talked about writing action scenes.

I was a little nervous because I've always hated what my voice sounds like. However, this was awesome. I sounded good. I didn't ramble on, I sounded like I knew what I was talking about. (which I do, I was just worried.)

It was a blast to do and I totally appreciate the creators of the Tank. I'm glad to call them friends.

Here you go:

Episode #24 Writing Action.

PSST . . . I'm not the only podcast on there. They've talked to people much more famous than me. (James Dashner of Maze Runner fame, Agent Michael Bourret, writer and editor Lisa Mangum for example)

A short run on the wild side.

I spent last Saturday in Layton at the Salt City Steamfest.

Its a steampunk convention with classes and booths and costumes and the Doctor. I wish I'd taken pictures this year but my focus was on teaching my class instead. I do have pics from last year ill post some of those.

But I had a great time. The class went well. the presentation was great and I had compliments on it. I made connections. And that's the most important thing.

Do You Have The Time . . .

To do anything?

Seriously.

My life is always busy, seven kids, house, husband, a full time writing career and deadlines. Yeah I could be the poster child for the whole "burning your candle at both ends".

We started the summer with our six year old being lifeflighted to the local children's hospital with a skull fracture. I had emergency surgery and now chicken pox is going through our family one child at a time.

Someone commented to me this week that they hoped their kid also didn't get the chicken pox from my kid because they didn't HAVE time for a sick kid. While I blew off the comment, how was I supposed to know he was sick when he was completely spot free and not acting sick? What they said bugged me for days.

The whole HAVE time thing.

I don't have time to do anything. Time is that elusive thing that slips through my day like trying to hold water in your hand. I could spend my entire day just putting out fires that two year old's make, answering the phone, running errands etc etc etc. I'm sure you get the idea. I could spend the whole day swimming upstream. thinking I don't HAVE time.

Same goes for writing.

Do I have time to write? Of course not.

Let's think about this for a minute. The way we approach anything can have a profound impact on how we actually follow through.

While someone might not HAVE time for sick kids or writing, there's a simple answer.

I MAKE time.

Yep. I make my family, my home, my writing a priority.

I let the phone go unanswered, I get off facebook, I either turn on the computer or turn it off depending on my focus for that period of time. I let my older kids load the dishwasher and mop the kitchen floor.

I make time to write. I make time to edit, market, communicate with editors, publishers etc. I make it a priority because its important to me.

How do you make time to do those things that are important to you?