Authors and Aspiring Authors: Come to Downers Grove Public Library on Saturday

On Saturday, November 8, the Downers Grove Public Library will host an event for authors and aspiring authors.

The event is called: "Local Author Panels: Tips and Tricks to Getting Your Book Published."

These panels will run from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at 1050 Curtiss Street in Downers Grove and will include a number of topics.

I was invited to participate in the "Promoting Your Book" panel, which runs from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

If you are an author, a writer, or an aspiring author or writer, come out and glean some tips about the writing, illustrating, publishing, and marketing process.

A full list of topics and times are here: downersgrove.libnet.info/event/14801662.

The panels are free to attend, and no author will be selling books at this event.

However, many of the authors will be available to chat and answer questions after the panels have ended.

I will also have information on B.L.O.C.K.S., BryonySeries, and WriteOn Joliet.

Maybe I will see you there.

Happy Monday! 

The Cat on the Back of the Desk Chair

Timothy snapped this photo one day of Faith and me one night when he popped up to my room while I was still working.

It's typical Faith and me, since Faith has shared my desk chair since she was a kitten.

Sometimes she sits behind me, which is why I almost always sit perched at the end of the chair, even when I worked in an office before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, during hose first few weeks in January 2014 when I became an actual Herald-News employee after being a freelancer for fifteen years felt strange without Faith sitting behind me, so I'd placed Snip there instead.

But if I leave my room for even a minute, I take any open drinks with me.

I learned my lesson years ago when I still worked in my attic office in Channahon.

One time, I ran downstairs to heat up my coffee, and then, when I returned,  my story was filled with random letters and lines and my keyboard was filled with water droplets and an ice cube.

Now if I could only train Faith to copyedit...

On Fire

I always like to think that nothing bad can happen in life without a corresponding outpouring of good.

At any rate, that appears to be the case over the past few days.

For instance:

Rebekah received her second COVID shot on Thursday and had the most robust reaction of all of us: arm felt "on fire," fever, etc., forcing her to pamper herself and rest. 

She also read through (and approved) Cornell Dyer and the "Mistical" Being, a book she started years ago, and where I recently expanded the draft. 

Rebekah has been super busy covering other people at work (July appears to be peak time for vacations at her company), so it's left her little free time. This weekend, she had an abundance of it.

She's still under the weather, so please think some "all better" thoughts for her.

I have a knee injury (long story here), so I spent a good part of the weekend with my leg elevated and wearing ice packs.

This left me plenty of time to get some writing work done on all fronts: a couple of big features projects, outling the new Girls of the BryonySeries series, two character questionnaires for Call of the Siren, and rereading and editing some of the previously written passages in "Siren."

Timothy, who's been enormously busy at work, scheduled a breakfast meeting for 6 a.m. next Saturday and a nearby restaurant (my first restaurant outing since COVID), to work on Cornell Dyer and the Calcium-Deficient Bones.

Our busy work schedules have kept bouncing this project, but we are both "on fire" to getting it done. So we'll (hopefully) get ahead of any weekend "surprises" by making it the first item of the day.

And, yes, we are still in the process of packing up TWO townhomes to move into two other townhomes in two weeks.

Finally - and here's the one that's most important.

I belong to an online writer's group called the 5amwritersclub.

Yesterday I received an email from the organizar, which was sent out to all members. This is what the email said:

Hey Folks,

I don't usually do this, but one of our members has had a personal catastrophe and could use some extra support. Tonya, has been a stalwart member of #5amwritersclub for over a year and unfortunately had a fire that destroyed her home. Luckily no one was hurt, but she has lost everything. I spoke with her earlier and she is working on getting back on her feet, but could use some help. She has set up a Go Fund Me page. If you are in a position to help, please take a look here.

Unfortunately, that member does not live in The Herald-News readership area, so I am unable to write a story to help raise support.

Fortunately, my blog goes everywhere (although certainly the level of readership can't even toucj that of a daily newspaper).

Anything that's happened to us (COVID shot response, knee issue, scheduling conflicts, having to pack up one's belongings to move to another place) can't even compare to the catastrophe of losing all those belongings and one's home in a fire.

But perhaps the support of strangers can warm this member's heart in ways even a fire can't touch.

If you can send a few dollars her way, that would be wonderful. Here is the GoFundMe link: gofund.me/811b267b.

And if you cannot help in this way, please send up a few prayers, good thoughts, etc.

This person and her family will need them for a long, long time.

On Retreat This Weekend

More specifically, I'm on a writing retreat this weekend.

Ralph Walker of the 5amwritersgroup on Twitter creater an entire program for Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday - and then opened it up to the first twenty writers that signed up. 

Yes, it's on Zoom (Did the photo fool you)? But the twenty of us are sitting in our homes all over the United States, and two of us are in Canada.

I'll share a recap early in the week.

In the meantime, I'll be working hard to make my words the best they can be.

The photo is my view from the plane from on the way to Raleigh to visit Sarah in 2017.

Here's hoping my muse soars to great heights these next few days, too.

Does It Count as Writing if You Don't Write a Word?

So this weekend I did "real" work, babysat one of my granddaughters, went to dinner a week late with Rebekah for our shared feast day, and caught up on some marketing.

I did not actively work on Before the Blood in terms of actual writing, not because I was busy (although I was), but because I was agonizing over a major plot element that didn't quite line up while I did the other stuff. And it took me most of the weekend to figure it out.

What do you think? Does that count as writing?

Boring on Social Media, Not Boring to Me

Ove five years ago, when the small press that is no longer in business first accepted Bryony, and around the time the first edits came back in the mail, I turned my attention to marketing, because everything I read said marketing begins long before a book's release.

One of the strong recommendations was an author blog. Up until this point, I had no interest in blogging. Writing features is far more appealing, and my return to a childhood love of writing fiction was also appealing. Both took plenty of time, and, besides, I couldn't drum up anything I thought readers might want to read.

I shared that conundrum with Sarah, an avid reader, and asked what would appeal to her.

"Write about topics related to the book," Sarah had said. "Write about how you got the ideas. Write about what's happening in your life."

I insisted I wanted the blog to be entertaining and posts to be relatively short, something people could quickly read and go back to their day, not another leech on their time. Sarah insisted it would be.

So I did,  and still do, post about topics that have a connection to the BryonySeries. I repost interesting items from other writers. I share writing tips I have learned along the way. I repost the features I have written during the week, as well as the features other freelancers writer for me, now that I am an editor as well as a writer. I post recipes from Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony," which is a fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties.

However, I stumble when it comes to posting about "what's happening in my life," and it less little to do with my shrinking away from self-promotion.

There is nothing happening that makes for good blogging. It's lean, routine, a bit monastic, and well-suited to me, but it's not the type of life that will send people flocking to a blog. Seriously, I can sum it up in a few sentences.

Mornings, seven days a week: I take a 24-hour Allegra (chronic hives), eat a banana (I'm hypoglycemic and bananas have no citric acid to block the Allegra), feed the cats, heat the coffee, post a Bible verse on Facebook because I'm a writer AND a Christian, so I want the first words I write each day to not be mine. I greet my "vampire fans" on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/BryonySeries, there's my bit of self-promotion) and then set my posts and blog for the day, and check my email, all while waking up with a cup of coffee (and petting a cat, if one wanders in).

Oh, and BTW, I get up to an alarm at 4 a.m. on work days and whenever on weekends (although my idea of "sleeping in" is getting up a lot earlier than many people do on workdays).

I eat the same breakfast seven days a week and power walk before work, five days a week. I get ready for work, pack food, check email, and pray for family, friends, church members, and co-workers while walking to work because I don't own a car.

My day is focused on writing about the cool stuff other people do: cover stories, features briefs, and calendar items. I do not take a lunch break, but eat out of my lunch box all day long. Because I do not take an official lunch, if a family item arises, I address it. I have eaten out twice in the fifteen months I have worked for the newspaper - once with my former publicist and once with co-workers, not because I'm anti-social, more because the work so aborbs me, and I'd rather take that time and talk to one of my kids, should someone call.

I walk home, praying for the souls of people that have died (see above list). I may unwind with some music while reading over some of my notes for Before the Blood and then do yoga (three nights a week) or lift weights (three nights a week). Shower, count out the next day's medicine, and to bed with a book follows that.

Two nights a month I co-lead a writer's group. One Sunday afternoon a month, I teach a by-invitation-only fiction class for a donation to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties, and the donation is the only reason why I have been persuaded to teach the class. Sunday I attend a little dying church of senior citizens, and the church is forty miles away. Friday nights is TV night with Daniel, and I watch the shows he has handpicked for me (because I scorn most TV). Repeat on Sunday nights with Rebekah, except we follow Once Upon A Time (which has gotten boring, the show, not Rebekah).

I spend Saturdays writing fiction, and I jealously guard that time because I enjoy it so much. Every four weekends, I am in charge of social media and breaking news for two newspapers, which cuts into my fiction time, LOL!

Any leftover time is reserved for my family and a few close friends. I don't go to the bar, read the latest books, or see the latest movies, although I might do the latter if it's an opportunity to connect with family or close friends.

This is my life. I love it.

And as you're working one last yawn in, I have to get ready for my walk.