Staying Busy

While I have stepped away from marketing, I'm still writing, sort of. I've got a couple of projects that will, once I buckle down, fill my time nicely.

My Novel Reboot

Just to catch up anyone who doesn't read this blog regularly, a few months ago I decided that I wanted physical copies of all my work. Yes, I read books on Kindle, and words are words, regardless of whether they're digital or printed; but for my "legacy", I want my actual books nesting on my shelf. 

Because eight of my works are novellas, it would have been stupid to turn those into paperbacks....vewy, vewy small paperbacks. So, I combined them into two paperback anthologies. It was excruciating work---getting the dimensions correct, working with the non-user friendly KDP template, fixing the layout to stop the words from bleeding into the spine area. But I got 'er done in the end, and now I have two fat paperbacks bumped up against Running From Herself on my bookshelf.

That left only two books to convert, both full novels. The first novel I ever wrote and published is not very good. It could potentially become good, but I'm not on board with the mountains of effort that would require. I published it in 2016, and I'm really over it. I've never re-read it, except before I began querying literary agents (delusional? you bet), and I haven't wanted to re-read it.

I eventually unpublished my second novel and reconstituted it into a novella. Trust me, I had no issue with cutting a bunch of stuff.

My third, though, really isn't bad. Except for the spots that are. The plot's good, the characters are well defined, the family dynamics are fraught. Only the first couple of chapters need to be redone. After years of writing, I finally learned that you've gotta hook readers from the start or all is lost. My opening doesn't hook; it doesn't even snag.

Since I'm done spending any money on anything publishing-related, I've already got a cover I made with Canva:

This cover is fine; it's good enough. I won't sell any copies of the novel, so there's no point going further into debt. (I actually rather like the cover.) I've also written a draft blurb, so things are moving along. 

So, this is Assignment Number One.

My Memory Book

In theory, a memory book is a nice idea. I was gifted this by one of my kids for Christmas. The way it works is, the memory book site sends a new question as often as the recipient chooses. There are a host of questions to choose from, and substitutions are allowed. One can also craft their own questions. I haven't counted, but it appears there are about 45 questions in all.

Being the independent sort, I don't just accept whatever is presented to me, so I've spent time substituting. If I'm going to compose answers, I at least want the questions to be interesting enough to write about. Still, there are limitations to how much a person can manipulate.

I've already given up on answering these questions in order, and have instead picked out the ones I feel like writing about. This, of course, has completely confused the site's algorithm; thus, I'm no longer getting questions emailed to me at all. That's fine. I do things the way I want to do them. Now, I just go to the site, scan the questions, and pick out one to work on.

I have found, as I'm sure most people would, that some questions are best left unanswered, especially if you know that someone (your kids) will be reading them. As old as I am, I'm still not a big sharer, and I don't want to dump on anyone, even if they're no longer on this earth. So, a question such as, "What was the biggest family drama you experienced?" is for me to know, and let's leave it at that. 

On the plus side, each "story" allows the inclusion of a photo or two, which I really like. I spent a few days digging through old photo albums and scanning pictures, and having a photo accompanying a story makes everything more vivid.

As long-winded as I tend to be, I've probably only answered about eight questions so far, which means I have a long way to go. But for someone like me who's given up writing fiction, this project keeps my writing chops sharp.

 

So, my writing will never truly end. I used to think my kids didn't truly know me, but one of them knew just the type of gift that would get my juices flowing.

I'm feeling hopeful. I was in a deep funk yesterday when the realization finally hit that my publishing career was a failure. I mean, I always knew it was a failure, but I'd refused to accept it. Now I have new/semi-new things to do. Trust me; I need things to do.