Nothing stays the same, does it? I keep casting my thoughts back to one calendar year ago. The amount of change in my life is positively dizzying. (Is that a word?)
I’m not just talking about a change in locale.
CHANGE IN WORD COUNTS
This morning I heard from my editor that Book #4 is a bit long. I’m not surprised. I had noticed that my original goal was 80-85,000 words. The more recent contract we’re negotiating shows a final word count of 70,000 words. That’s a big change. Especially since I’ve been working very hard to develop subplots that take my books to the next level.
CHANGE IN MARKETING STRATEGIES
Today, most publishers schedule books to come out yearly. When you think about that, it’s a bit odd. I mean, I watch my favorite shows every week, and they’ve got me hooked. So why is it different with books? I would love to share my Kiki short stories between the book launches. We’ll have to see if I can.
CHANGE IN MY HAIRSTYLE
For some odd reason, most of the curl in my hair has just…disappeared. I have no idea now. Maybe it symbolizes that I’m not nearly so tightly wound. Or maybe it’s the result of living near Washington, D. C., where everyone seems to be very, um, personally conservative and straight-laced. Curly doesn’t seem to fit my new life.
CHANGE IN MY WEBSITE
Stay tuned. Working on this.
CHANGE IN MY PRIORITIES
A old friend sent me a ranting political piece she’d written that was totally inflammatory–and then she asked me to critique it. This came totally out of the blue. I thought to myself, “I didn’t sign up for this.” See, when you work at home by yourself all day, and you get something that’s so…ugly, it’s hard to shake the mood. As a wise business coach once said, “The most important thing any entrepreneur can do is protect their confidence.” Translated for writers that becomes, “The most important thing any writer can do is protect her mental state.” I should have told my old friend, “Please don’t send me anything like this again.”
CHANGE IN STATUS
Used to be, I was the new kid on the block. My dear pal Emilie Richards came over for breakfast the other day, and we had a lovely talk about how to write a synopsis, how to keep track of a story in progress, and where we hoped to go with our next books. I reflected at the time that this isn’t a conversation we could have had years ago. I didn’t know enough to ask Emilie the questions I’m asking today. I guess I’m not such a newbie anymore! This lovely blog post by Pam DeVoe confirms it.
